Volume 20 Issue 8, August 2019

Epigenetic and transcriptional analyses of B cell subsets from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus reveal extensive effects of the disease environment and identify previously unknown connections and regulators of DN2 B cells and ABC-like cells.

Analysis of the whole-genome transcriptional activity of HIV-specific CD4⁺ T cells demonstrates distinct profiles associated with natural control of HIV replication, as well as dysfunctional phenotypes that persist even after effective antiretroviral therapy.

A new report shows that upregulation of the receptor TREM1 on macrophages and neutrophils, dependent on the adrenergic nervous system, links stroke to systemic inflammation and gut barrier dysfunction, which result in bacterial translocation and exacerbation of neurological damage.

Characterization of the self antigens that neonatal regulatory T cells recognize reveals dramatic effects of age and inflammation on the fate of T cells developing in the thymus.

The American Course on Drug Development and Regulatory Science and the US National Institutes of Health held a workshop on cell-based immunotherapy on 22 January 2019.

Pierce and colleagues discuss the cellular consequences of BCR signaling and recent advances in the understanding of B cell signaling in context in vivo.

Underlying inflammatory bowel disease is a complex web of activated immune cells. In this Review, Neurath delineates the cells, pathways and signals that contribute to the pathology of inflammatory bowel disease and the potential for therapeutic intervention.

Colonna and colleagues show that human innate lymphoid cells undergo conversion from ILC3s into ILC1-like cells in tissues in vivo.

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) can exhibit considerable plasticity. Humbles and colleagues identify a subpopulation of ILC2s in humans that can convert to proinflammatory ILC3s with implications for human skin diseases.

O’Sullivan and colleagues show that liver-resident type 1 ILCs have enhanced protective effector responses to secondary challenge with mouse cytomegalovirus, dependent on the viral glycoprotein m12.

The membrane tetraspan protein MS4A4A is expressed on tissue-resident and tumor-associated macrophages. Locati and colleagues show that MS4A4A colocalizes with the β-glucan receptor dectin-1 to enhance cytokine and reactive oxygen species production and to enhance NK cell–mediated control of tumor metastasis.

Cerebral ischemia activates innate immune responses in injured brain lesions. Andreasson and colleagues show TREM1 is upregulated after stroke and amplifies these proinflammatory responses by peripheral CD11b⁺ myeloid cells in both the ischemic brain and distally in the intestine.

IFN-λ has important innate immune system functions at mucosal surfaces, but its importance in adaptive immunity is largely unknown. Using an influenza infection model, Gale and colleagues demonstrate that IFN-λ is essential for effective adaptive cellular immunity in the lung.

T_reg cells are essential for self-tolerance. Huseby and colleagues identify multiple de facto T_reg cell self-peptides and show that T_reg cells are exported from the thymus within a defined postnatal developmental window that is controlled by their increased negative selection.

HIV infection results in T cell dysfunction. Kaufmann and colleagues demonstrate that HIV infection results in an alterated differentation of HIV-specific CD4⁺ T cells that is only partially reversed by antiretroviral therapy and generation of dysfunctional T cells with a follicular helper-like phenotype.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is characterized by autoantibodies produced by pathogenic B cells. Boss, Sanz and colleagues show that SLE-associated epigenetic changes exist in gene regulatory programs in resting naive B cells, before their differentiation into antibody-producing plasma cells.