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Up the down staircase

Nature Immunology volume 3, pages 802–803 (2002)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 October 2002

NF-κB is important in many biological processes and is activated by ubiquitous protein kinases. However, in T cells, its activation is regulated by a specific set of adapter proteins.

Knowledge of specificity in immune-regulating signaling pathways holds the key to better immunosuppressive therapy. One of the mostdesired targets of immunosuppressive drugs is the NF-κB–Rel family of transcription factors that control a wide range of immune defense mechanisms. Because these factors operate in all types of cells and often serve to prevent undue apoptosis, the design of therapies demands knowledge that will enable the blocking of NF-κB in a cell-specific manner. The basic mechanisms of NF-κB regulation are shared by many different biological processes, such as induction of host immune response genes by bacterial and viral components, cellular responses to physical stress and cytokine-mediated regulation of embryonic development and cell growth. However, two studies in this issue of Nature Immunology by Wang et al.1 and Gaide et al.2 and a study by Pomeranz et al.3 in an upcoming issue of the EMBO Journal describe a “private” section within this common pathway, which allows the specific activation of NF-κB in T lymphocytes upon binding of antigens to their receptors.

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Figure 1: An exclusive “upstairs” receptor-recruitment and -activation pathway controlling a common “downstairs” NF-κB activation pathway leading from the cytoplasm to the nucleus.

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  1. Department of Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    David Wallach

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  1. David Wallach
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Wallach, D. Up the down staircase. Nat Immunol 3, 802–803 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0902-802

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0902-802

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