Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Entering a new scientific field is difficult and daunting. Here I relate my personal journey as a fish immunologist and how neuroimmunologists welcomed me with open arms (and brains), giving me the sense of belonging that we all need as scientists.
Since the discoveries of autoantibodies in neurological diseases, women have had a fascinating journey in neuroimmunology. At a time when groundbreaking advances are being made, let’s continue the conversation about women in science.
In acknowledgment of Women’s History Month, I have drawn upon timeless concepts from Jane Jacobs’ seminal 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities1 to describe emerging ideas in neuroimmunology and how we may collectively move the field forward.
Understanding the ontogeny of conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) is a major aim in the field. The fate of progenitors of the recently described subsets of mouse cDC2s (cDC2A and cDC2B) is determined in the bone marrow.
A study identifies an increase in the tissue-protective factor HB-EGF during the initial stage of multiple sclerosis (MS), which is actively turned off as the disease worsens.
Drivers of persistent symptoms after acute COVID-19 remain largely unknown. Alterations in immune function, iron homeostasis and dysregulated erythropoiesis are described as treatable correlates of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19.
Intratumoral regulatory T (Treg) cells can suppress antitumor immunity. Unlike in splenic Treg cells, the H3K9me2 demethylase JMDJ1 seems to be induced, and is required for this function, in the tumor microenvironment, and targeting it with a small-molecule inhibitor can suppress tumor growth in mice.
Visceral adipose tissue hosts at least two populations of mature FOXP3+ regulatory T cells, which together can preserve systemic metabolism and control inflammation.
A landmark study reveals how Kupffer cells, resident macrophages of the liver, can promote antitumor immunity. Central to this function is ID3, a Kupffer cell lineage-determining factor. The findings provide new insights into cancer therapy.
The development of therapies for ischemic stroke requires a deep understanding of the immune response to injury. Analysis now defines immune cell origin, disease stage-specific responses, and the effects of age and sex after ischemic stroke.
Cancer cells often rely on glycolysis for energy metabolism. Increased glycolysis leads to the increased production of lactate and H+ ions, which should hypothetically lower intracellular pH. However, we find that tumor cells combat intracellular over-acidification by synthesizing carnosine, especially under hypoxic conditions, which allows them to control lysosome-dependent galectin-9 expression and evade T cell-mediated immune surveillance.
In this study, we developed an adenoviral-vectored vaccine that targets the spike protein of BA.5 Omicron SARS-CoV-2. When nasally delivered in mice and hamsters, the vaccine stimulated mucosal antibody production and CD8+ T cell responses, and demonstrated protection against several SARS-CoV-2 strains, including the antigenically distant Omicron XBB.1.5 strain. Immune cell depletion studies showed that cross-reactive memory CD8+ T cells contribute to the cross-protection that is conferred by nasal vaccines against respiratory infection with antigenically shifted SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strains.
Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is the only available vaccine against tuberculosis. As well as being an effective vaccine against tuberculosis, BCG also provides off-target protection against various pathogens. Here, we report a mechanism for BCG-mediated cross-protection against influenza A virus (IAV), which requires a dialogue between the innate and adaptive immune memory systems.
Schäfer et al. discuss the application of computational methods that integrate single-cell and spatial multi-omics with existing biological knowledge to inform our understanding of immunological responses.
Divangahi and colleagues identify a mechanism of heterologous immunity by BCG involving cross-talk between conventional memory T cells and innate memory cells against influenza A virus infection’.
Linnerbauer and colleagues find that HB-EGF produced by reactive astrocytes is protective during autoimmune neuroinflammation, but epigenetically suppressed during late stages.
Reis e Sousa et al. show that cDC2As and cDC2Bs are derived from distinct subsets of bone marrow pre-cDC2s, suggesting that the two lineages are ontogenetically determined.
Siliciano and colleagues describe the generation of bispecific antibodies that target the HIV-1 envelope protein (Env) on the surface of HIV-1-infected cells and the receptor CD16 on the surface of NK cells to induce the NK cell-mediated lysis of HIV-1-infected cells and reduce the viral reservoir.
Smith and colleagues find that a multivariate signature of unresolved inflammation and altered iron homeostasis detected beyond 2 weeks following acute COVID-19 onset was the strongest early differentiator of those who report long COVID symptoms at 3–10 months.
Carnosine is a mobile buffering metabolite. Here the authors link carnosine accumulation, hypoxia and intracellular pH homeostasis in cancer cells as a mechanism of tumor immune evasion via NFX1 degradation and galectin-9 activity.
Here, the authors characterize two distinct Treg cell populations in the visceral adipose tissue of lean and high-fat diet-fed mice. ST2+ Treg cells are dominant in male mice and are transcriptionally driven by GATA3 and PPARγ, regulators that limit the differentiation of the more female-dominant population of CXCR3+ Treg cells that are T-bet dependent. Functional distinctions are also evident in glucose tolerance and adipose inflammation.
IL-23 promotes tumor growth in preclinical cancer models and correlates with adverse clinical outcomes. Here, Becher and colleagues find that IL-23 produced by tumor-associated macrophages stabilizes Treg cell identity, promoting immunosuppression and tumor growth.
Here, the authors target intratumoral Treg cells to enhance antitumor immunity without affecting systemic Treg cell function and identify JMJD1C as a critical epigenetic regulator of tumor Treg cell fitness.
Here, the authors enhance their nasally delivered chimpanzee adenoviral-vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccine with an Omicron-matched vaccine (ChAd-SARS-CoV-2-BA.5-S) that stimulates mucosal immunity in mice and hamsters and shows cross-reactive CD8+ memory T cell-driven protection against antigenically distant strains.
Here the authors show that lithium carbonate can revitalize tumor-reactive CD8+T cells by shunting cytosolic lactic acid into the mitochondria for oxidation, indicating that lithium ions might be applied as a cancer immunotherapy.
Callahan et al. show that GC and extra-GC sites spawn distinct MBC subsets. MBC precursors have open chromatin regions (OCRs) that will remain open in MBC progeny, with extra-GC and GC-derived MBCs having distinct OCRs and functions.