Articles in 2019

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that secrete bispecific T cell engagers (BiTEs) show promise for the treatment of glioblastoma in mouse models.

Stimulation of cutaneous TRPV1⁺ neurons is sufficient to induce a type 17 inflammatory response that spreads to surrounding skin areas to provide ‘anticipatory’ host defence against fungal infection.

Metabolites associated with the maternal or neonatal microbiota can shape regulatory T cell development in early life, thereby affecting the susceptibility of infants to allergy.

The identification of suitable tumour-specific antigens, which can be targeted by vaccine-based or T cell-based immunotherapies, is challenging. This Review explores the potential of alternative splicing to generate unique tumour antigens and discusses methods for their identification.

Researchers have identified a subset of T helper cells that is found predominantly in individuals with multiple sclerosis. The subset is defined by expression of GM-CSF and CXCR4 and may be important in disease pathology.

This Review focuses on evidence implicating innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) as previously unappreciated regulators of the adaptive immune system. Reciprocal interactions between ILCs and adaptive immune cells are a crucial determinant of tissue immune responses during homeostasis and disease.

Plasma cells promote increased myelopoiesis in the bone marrow of older mice.

Leukaemia stem cells seem to evade immune surveillance by repressing the expression of stress-induced activating natural killer (NK) cell ligands. Overriding this repression with inhibitors renders them amenable to control by NK cells and prevents leukaemogenesis.

Cytosolic protein oligomers formed by certain innate immune receptors and their adaptor proteins trigger the integrated stress response pathway, which regulates the stability of these signalosomes as well as downstream inflammatory responses.

Mucosal-associated invariant T cells display innate, effector-like qualities and are involved, in various ways, in infectious and non-infectious diseases. Insights into their activation, tissue migration and function are revealing their beneficial and deleterious roles in disease.

A new study shows that neutrophils collaborate with tumour-associated macrophages and unconventional innate-like T cells to mount type 1 antitumour immunity.

This study demonstrates that TREM1, an amplifier of inflammation, is induced on peripheral myeloid cells in response to stroke and uncovers an intriguing connection between the brain, the gut and the immune system.

Sleep enhances immune defences, and afferent signals from immune cells promote sleep. However, in response to chronic stressors, the normally adaptive function of sleep can become dysregulated, with implications for inflammatory and antiviral responses.

Six studies describe a role for TOX in promoting an ‘exhausted’ CD8⁺ T cell phenotype in settings of chronic antigenic stimulation, such as persistent viral infections and cancer.

Levels of CCR5 expression by CD4⁺ T cells, which influence the outcome of HIV-1 infection, are modulated by polymorphism of a non-coding RNA that affects mRNA stability.

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) modulates innate and adaptive immune responses at both local and systemic levels; understanding the mechanisms of this immunomodulatory capacity can explain how UVR has both beneficial and detrimental effects.

New findings indicate that IFN-λ (type III IFN) has a non-redundant role in antiviral, antifungal and antiprotozoal defences of mucosal barriers that differs in several aspects from the functions of IFN-α and IFN-β (type I IFNs).

Christoph Hess describes a 1984 paper by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren that proposed that bacteria might be a key factor in chronic gastritis.

It is well known that immune cells can have profound effects on bone cells, but this interaction is not unidirectional. In this review, Tsukasaki and Takayanagi explore the reciprocal dialogue between bone cells and immune cells during health and disease.