Reviews & Analysis

Severe COVID-19 is marked by excessive inflammation that can persist after infection. The commensal yeast Candida albicans is now implicated in the acute and chronic immunopathology of COVID-19.

Hogan et al. identify a co-immunodominant influenza peptide presented in mice by MHC-E, a nonclassical class I molecule. Notably, the peptide derives from a 16-residue alternative reading frame translated by leaky ribosome scanning of the M1 mRNA and is recognized by conventional CD8⁺ T cells.

A trimodal single-cell assay reveals a previously unknown T cell subset and cellular state differences between children and older adults that might contribute to age-specific immunity.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors provide beneficial anti-tumor immunity but risk immune-related adverse events occurring in normal tissues. Notably, selective deletion of PGLYRP1, a protein expressed by several immune cells, protects against tumor cell growth and autoimmunity.

Genetic and environmental diversity are major drivers of macrophage transcriptional responses, but the mechanisms that underlie the relative contributions of gene-by-environment interactions to transcriptional responses of tissue macrophages are unclear. We defined the relative effect of cis regulation, cell-autonomous trans regulation, and non-cell-autonomous trans regulation of Kupffer cell gene expression.

Santosa and Sun draw parallels from T cell biology to explore the key features of immune memory in innate lymphocytes.

For decades, beta-blockers have been used widely to treat cardiovascular diseases. Surprisingly, new data show how these inhibitors can also improve immunotherapy against tumors and chronic infections.

Kupffer cells, hepatic resident macrophages, are the first line of defense against liver metastases by engulfing disseminated malignant cells. We found that ERMAP expressed on tumor cells binds to galectin-9 and dectin-2 on Kupffer cells to deliver pro-phagocytosis ‘eat me’ signals to Kupffer cells to restrict liver metastases.

The first conference on ‘Infection and Immunity’ was organized by the Institute for Basic Science and Korean Association of Immunologists and held in Daejeon, South Korea, from 12 to 14 July 2023. The conference focused on the biology of CD8⁺ T cells in the context of viral disease and cancer.

On 20–23 June 2023, the 10th International γδ T cell conference was held in Lisbon, Portugal, bringing together basic, translational and clinical researchers studying γδ T cells in health and disease.

After vaccination, spike-specific CD8⁺ T cells play an important part in the immediate immune response to breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection, whereas the B cell and neutralizing antibody responses come into effect 2 weeks after infection.

That regulatory T cells can change their phenotypes has been shown in mouse models of atherosclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. We suspected that this phenomenon would also be true in humans. To test this hypothesis, we developed a strategy to identify human ‘exT_reg’ cells and found that they express a cytotoxic transcriptome.

We show that multivalent epitope display on the surface of viral-sized particles functions as a ‘stand-alone’ danger signal by evading inhibitory pathways to trigger a unique mode of B cell receptor signaling. The activation, survival and proliferation of B cells stimulated with particulate antigen is highly enhanced compared with those stimulated with soluble antigen, and does not require co-stimulation from T cells.

Many transcription factors contain intrinsically disordered regions whose functions are not well characterized. An intrinsically disordered region in TCF-1 has now been found to have an essential function in coordinating T cell lineage commitment.

The transcription factor NFAT5 regulates T cell exhaustion, a dysfunctional state caused by chronic exposure to antigen and other signals, during cancer but not during chronic viral infection.

IRF4 is required for the differentiation of T cells, B cells and some myeloid cells. A new study finds that IRF4 is upregulated following natural killer (NK) cell activation and is required for the differentiation and expansion of virus-specific NK cells by controlling nutrient acquisition, including iron uptake.

A recent study identified a microglia–T cell communication axis that retains CD8⁺ T cells in brains with amyloid pathology. Data from this study indicate that CD8⁺ T cells restrict Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.

Glioblastoma is a devastating primary brain tumor consisting of multiple cell populations. We identified TFPI2 as the crucial effector of the symbiotic interaction between glioblastoma stem cells and microglia. Blockade of this symbiosis inhibited tumor growth and synergized with an immune checkpoint inhibitor in mouse models of glioblastoma.

Proal and colleagues review the evidence for long-term persistence of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in tissues of infected individuals and discuss how this viral reservoir may contribute to the pathogenesis of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC).

Control of the alternative commitment of immature CD4⁺CD8⁺ T cells to the CD4⁺ or CD8⁺ lineage has long been the subject of intense scrutiny. A combination of CITE-seq and functional assays provides significant new insights into the distinct T cell antigen receptor signaling requirements for these lineage fates.