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A genome-wide screening of functionally active enhancers, combined with analyses of chromatin features, transcription factor binding and gene expression, reveals general principles of gene regulatory networks in activated B cells.
Radiation therapy has for decades been a standard form of treatment for many cancers. A Review by Galluzzi and colleagues explores the effects of radiation therapy in the context of the immune response.
IL-33 is shown to play a cell-intrinsic role in maintenance of the functional identity of regulatory T cells in the tumor microenvironment. Genetic inhibition of IL-33 potentiates the therapeutic effect of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy in a melanoma mouse tumor model.
NLRP3-driven sterile inflammation facilitates the pathogenesis of various human inflammatory diseases. New work identifies apolipoprotein C3 as an endogenous NLRP3 agonist that promotes sterile inflammation and organ damage.
Hypoxia and acidity in the tumor microenvironment promote resistance to immunotherapy. Hypoxia upregulates multiple immunoinhibitory pathways, including VISTA, and acidity enables VISTA to interact with PSGL-1 to inhibit immune activation selectively in the acidic tumor microenvironment.
Specificity and function are the two main aspects that define T cell biology. A new report provides a technology that allows simultaneous assessment of both at the single-cell level.
The cytokine IL-7 plays essential roles in lymphocyte development. In their Review, Barata, Durum and Seddon describe IL-7’s key homeostatic functions and how its dysregulation can lead to autoinflammatory disease and cancer.
Ziegler and Corren review the cytokine TSLP, which regulates immune cell homeostasis at mucosal barriers, its role in allergic responses and newly discovered roles in cancer.
Internationally renowned scientists gathered at the 2nd Human & Translational Immunology Conference in Kos, Greece, to discuss the latest advances in translational immunology, especially vaccinology, infectious diseases and tumor immunotherapy.
Ivashkiv and colleagues review the mechanisms by which IFN signatures and IFN epigenomic signatures are generated, as well as the functional consequences of these signatures in homeostasis and autoimmune diseases.
Xiaoxia Li and colleagues discuss the roles of signaling via IL-17 and its receptor and the implications of this axis for human health, noting their normal protective roles directed against fungi and bacteria as well as against pathological conditions in inflammation and cancer.
The virome, increasingly recognized as a critical component of the mammalian microbiota, modulates host physiology. An antiviral treatment approach reveals that, via RIG-I signaling, the commensal virome is essential for the homeostasis of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes.
Acid sphingomyelinase deficiency, which prevents degradation of sphingomyelin (SM), causes lysosomal SM overload both in mice and in patients with Niemann–Pick disease A or B. Altered cellular SM homeostasis disrupts the development and function of natural killer T cells by obstructing the presentation of lipid agonists by CD1d molecules.
A report sheds new light on the molecular mechanisms responsible for the discrimination of self versus non-self TCR ligands and reveals the crucial role of the kinetics of LAT tyrosine phosphorylation in this.
Checkpoint blockade has revolutionized cancer immunotherapy; however, this approach is effective in only a subset of cancers. In their Review, Vignali and colleagues discuss novel checkpoint targets and their biology and clinical potential.
Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) are potent activators of the innate immune sensor STING. The identification of a CDN importer sheds new light on the regulation of extracellular CDNs.
Chronic exposure to fungal antigen drives the development of two subsets of CD4+ TRM cells, distinguished by high or low expression of the integrin CD103, with opposing roles in inflammation-induced lung fibrosis.
