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The lung endothelial cell–derived angiocrine Rspondin3 activates Wnt–β-catenin signaling in interstitial macrophages, leading to a metabolic–epigenetic reprogramming of interstitial macrophages that drives anti-inflammatory responses and attenuates endotoxin-induced lung injury.
SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes are found in both convalescent patients and virus-naive volunteers and are indicative of heterologous recognition shared with seasonal cold viruses.
Two studies reveal a role for the transcriptional regulator BATF3 as a T cell–intrinsic factor mediating effective memory responses. This finding opens future avenues of investigation and opportunities to enhance cellular immunotherapy.
The pathways controlling T follicular helper (TFH) cell development are only partially understood. Allen and colleagues demonstrate the importance of the T cell receptor, with low tonic signaling promoting TFH cell development and high tonic signaling opposing it.
Treg cells are essential for immune homeostasis, but the transcription factors controlling their cellular identity are incompletely understood. Schumann and colleagues use pooled and arrayed CRISPR screens and scRNA-seq to describe key gene networks in human Treg cells.
Luster and colleagues show that Treg cells that reside in lung mucosa can respond to IL-33 upon allergen exposure and suppress innate cell responses. IL-33-activated ST2+ Treg cells secrete IL-35, which suppresses IL-17 production by γδ T cells and lessens eosinophil recruitment into the lung.
BATF3 is a member of the AP-1 transcription factor family. Kastenmüller and colleagues show that BATF3 is needed to promote memory CD8+ T cell responses. Activated CD8+ T cells transiently upregulate BATF3, which in turn suppresses expression of proapoptotic BIM to promote cell survival.
The mechanisms that drive responses to PD-1-blocking immunotherapy in some but not all patients have been puzzling. A new study suggests that the balance of PD-1 expression levels between CD8+ T cells and Treg cells might provide an answer.
The activation of the Notch4–Wnt–GDF15 axis in induced regulatory T (Treg cells) dampens their immunoregulatory function and turns them into TH2 and TH17 cytokine producers, allowing them to maintain ongoing allergic asthma.
Cytokines are well-known mediators of the immune response, but, recently, pleiotropic roles in the central nervous system have started to be uncovered. It is now shown that IL-17 directly modulates fear behavior in mice.
Phagocytes can acquire lipids and this modulates their function in a variety of disease states, such as atherosclerosis. Ren and colleagues demonstrate that neutrophils accumulate lipids and deliver them to tumor cells, which supports their proliferation, survival and metastasis.
Dysregulation of lung Treg cell function contributes to asthma development. Chatila and colleagues find that allergens upregulate Notch4–Hippo–Wnt signaling in Treg cells, triggering their release of GDF15 growth factor, which drives type 2 innate lymphoid cell activity and asthma.
IL-17a is an evolutionarily conserved cytokine with behavior-modulating roles in the central nervous system. Kipnis and colleagues characterize a population of meningeal γδ17 T cells that use IL-17a to elicit anxiety-like behavior through cortical glutamatergic neurons.
The adhesion receptor CD2 plays an important role in the full activation of T cells. Dustin and colleagues show that CD2 occupies a region in the periphery of the immunological synapse where it amplifies cognate antigen signals, whereas the presence of PD-1 disrupts this effect.
Comprehensive mapping reveals that functional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells targeting multiple regions of SARS-CoV-2 are maintained in the resolution phase of both mild and severe COVID-19, and their magnitude correlates with the antibody response.