Articles in 2015

Inhibition of epigenetic modifiers in ovarian cancer cells blocks cancer progression and improves immunotherapy.

Ron Germain describes two seminal papers by Marc Jenkins and colleagues that introduced new techniques for analysis of the T cell repertoire.

Dietary long-chain fatty acids enhance the differentiation of T_H1 and T_H17 cells in the gut, which worsens disease in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

Smoking promotes pathogenic T_H17 cell responses by inducing the expression of miR-22 in myeloid cells.

B cells expressing GM-CSF activate myeloid cells to drive T cell-mediated multiple sclerosis.

Acute infection can lead to chronic lymphadenopathy and long-term immune impairment.

The kinases MST1 and MST2, which are activated by Toll-like receptor stimulation, regulate the trafficking of mitochondria to phagosomes to deliver reactive oxygen species.

RIPK1 and NF-κB signalling in dying cells are necessary for CD8⁺T cell cross-priming.

This Essay considers how prokaryotic and mammalian immune systems ensure tolerance or resistance to genetic elements. In particular, the authors discuss the restriction–modification and CRISPR–Cas activities of prokaryotes and the analogous immune pathways found in mammals.

The microbiota drives ageing and the acquisition of pro-inflammatory functions in circulating neutrophils.

Perforin-positive dendritic cells protect against metabolic syndrome and autoimmunity.

Stimulation of naive CD4⁺T cells in glutamine-deprived conditions favours differentiation into regulatory T cells.

Emerging evidence suggests that the stroma of the tumour microenvironment can shape antitumour immunity and responsiveness to immunotherapy. The stromal cells and the signals they produce that influence tumour-infiltrating leukocytes, as well as the implications for cancer treatment, are reviewed here.

Reciprocal interactions between leukocytes and endothelial cells enable leukocytes to recognize the blood vessel endothelium in areas of inflammation and transmigrate across the endothelial barrier to mount an immune response in infected and/or damaged tissues.

Here, the authors explain how the specificity and magnitude of the primary cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response is determined during a viral infection. They discuss the different factors that influence the recruitment and expansion of naive CTL precursors, and they explain how technological advances have enabled a more accurate quantitation of these responses.

γδ T cells have unique specificities, high clonal frequencies and a pre-activated differentiation status that allow rapid and non-redundant responses to tumours. Here, the authors review their often contrasting roles in cancer and the opportunities for γδ T cell-based cancer therapies.

Ruslan Medzhitov describes a 2002 paper by Craig Thompson and colleagues that brought the concept of Warburg metabolism to lymphocytes.

John O'Shea describes a 2000 paper by Roggeet al. that was the first to compare the transcriptomes of human T_H1 cells and T_H2 cells.

The rapid response of innate immune cells requires metabolic reprogramming to support their specific effector functions. As discussed here, mTOR is a key regulator of this process: it senses the environmental and intracellular nutritional status of innate immune cells to dictate and optimize the inflammatory response.