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The extreme diversity of the human immune system, forged and maintained throughout evolutionary history, provides a potent defense against opportunistic pathogens. Liston and colleagues review the current state of play in the field, identify the key unknowns in the causality of immune variation and identify the multidisciplinary pathways toward an improved understanding.
Schwartz and colleagues review the immune niches in the brain, the contribution of professional immune cells to brain functions and the relevance of immune components to brain aging and neurodegenerative disease.
T cell receptor–independent triggering of T cells is known as bystander activation. Shin and colleagues review the mechanisms and significance of bystander activation to homeostatic antimicrobial responses and immunopathology.
Sharpe and colleagues review salient aspects of CD8+ T cell dysfunction in cancer, chronic viral infections and autoimmunity, with a view of developing new ways to alleviate T cell exhaustion and enhance CD8+ T cell functions in cancer and chronic viral infection, as well as strategies to induce or augment exhaustion-like features to treat autoimmunity.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) can exert potent immunomodulatory effects. Wirtz and colleagues review the types of EV and their influence on tumor responses.
The NLRP3 inflammasome is a central operator in inflammation. Sharma and Kanneganti review the varied roles played by the NLRP3 inflammasome in cancer and metabolic diseases.