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Although elimination may be key to a healthy response to some microbes, a recent paper in Nature reports that regulatory T cells actually aid the survival of some intracellular parasites, which ensures a memory response.
Type I IFNs are important in antiviral immunity. Two studies report the identification of another family of molecules that have similar properties to the type I IFNs but are otherwise structurally and genetically distinct.
A study in a recent issue of Nature showing the lack of cross-protective immunity in an infected patient to a closely related strain of HIV-1 suggests that vaccine strategy may need to be re-examined.
Serum IgE concentrations are kept low to avoid potential allergic complications. New data show how Id2 suppresses class switching to the ε isotype and reduces IgE expression.
Signals through the pre-BCR play key roles in B cell development. New data reveal how two downstream components, SLP-65 and the tyrosine kinase Abl, regulate pre-BCR surface expression and immunoglobulin light chain expression.
Historical Insight: During those periods when immunology was oriented toward medical or biological subjects, Darwinian concepts predominated. These included Metchnikoff's phagocytic theory and Ehrlich's receptor theory during the early years and Burnet's clonal selection theory after the 1950s. During the immunochemically oriented interim, instruction theories were not so much anti- as a-Darwinian.