Kedzierska and colleagues examine the response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines in Australian First Nations people, a population with a high burden of comorbidities. The artwork depicts the organs affected by chronic disease as five large dots (for heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and brain), surrounded by bush medicine leaves and smaller dots representing the researchers and health professionals sharing information.

See Kedzierska et al.

Cheng et al. show that an extra copy of the X-linked epigenetic regulator UTX in female mice increases natural killer (NK) cell effector function. As NK cells are crucial for antiviral immunity, this may explain decreased severity of viral infections in female versus male mammals.

See Cheng et al.

Kamiya and colleagues examine the effects of chronic social defeat stress on the intestinal microbiome and show the pathological role of dectin-1 and interleukin-17 expressed by gut γδ T cells on this behavioral vulnerability.

See Kamiya et al.

Reboldi and colleagues show that high-cholesterol diets influence the secretion of immunoglobulin A (IgA). Cholesterol-derived metabolites act on plasma cell GPR183 receptors to alter the positioning of IgA+ plasma cells within the lamina propria and suppress antibody responses to intestinal pathogens.

See Reboldi et al.

Proper localization and function of immune cells in the skin is crucial for protection and for establishing skin tissue homeostasis. Xiong and colleagues find a developmentally programmed process that directs preferential localization of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells into the skin for early local homeostatic regulation.

See Xiong et al.

Ammonia detoxification is generally thought to occur exclusively in the liver. Huang and colleagues show that ammonia detoxification via the urea and citrulline cycles is utilized by memory CD8+ T cells to maintain longevity.

See Tang et al.