Articles in 2019

This Review describes how the body attempts to maintain a functional T cell compartment with advancing age. It explores whether T cell ageing reflects cellular senescence or the failure to maintain quiescence and instead undergo differentiation.

Trifunctional antibodies, binding to the natural killer cell receptors NKp46 and CD16, as well as a tumour antigen, show promising activity in preclinical experiments.

Antibodies that dissolve Charcot–Leyden crystals may have therapeutic potential in asthma and other eosinophil-associated inflammatory diseases.

Exercise is known to have beneficial effects on the immune system. In this Review, Janet Lord and colleagues discuss the evidence that exercise can prevent diseases associated with ageing by protecting against immunosenescence.

A new study identifies an unexpected role for type I interferon-responsive CD8⁺ T cells in cachexia associated with viral infection.

The response to anti-PD1 therapy depends on the expression of CXCR3 ligands by dendritic cells in the tumour, which promote the proliferation and activation of intratumoural CD8⁺ T cells.

Expression of VCAM1 on brain endothelium increases with age and targeting VCAM1 reverses microglial cell activation and cognitive deficits in older mice.

Betty Wu-Hsieh describes a 2013 paper by Gordon Brown and colleagues that showed fungal strain-specific interactions with the innate immune system.

Vaccine trials against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) are showing encouraging results. This Review discusses current Mtb vaccine design in the light of new insights into the immunology of tuberculosis infection.

Tuft cells captured the attention of immunologists with recent discoveries linking them to type 2 immunity in the small intestine. As described here, these rare secretory epithelial cells act as chemosensory sentinels that detect and relay responses through immune and neuronal cells.

Two new studies identify the discrete stromal cell subtypes that produce IL-33 in adipose tissue to support the immune cells that maintain adipose tissue homeostasis.

An intestinal mucus-dwelling bacterial species can trigger spontaneous colitis in mice lacking genes associated with Crohn’s disease.

This study shows that circular RNAs that contain double-stranded regions can modulate innate immunity by inhibiting the pattern recognition receptor protein kinase R (PKR).

A new study describes how mechanical skin injury caused by scratching can promote food anaphylaxis by increasing the number of mast cells in the gut through a keratinocyte–ILC2–tuft cell pathway.

This Review covers new insights into the immune roles of complement. The authors discuss the pathways that link complement signalling with homeostatic and pathological T cell responses and highlight how complement components act intracellularly to shape T cell responses.

Computational modelling predicts a co-stimulatory role for Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) in naive CD4⁺ T cell activation.

The NLRP3 inflammasome mediates pro-inflammatory responses and pyroptotic cell death. Here, the authors describe the complex pathways controlling its activation and regulation and how it is being targeted to treat inflammatory diseases.

To maintain homeostasis and minimize unnecessary, potentially damaging inflammatory responses, tissue-resident macrophages cloak small tissue lesions to prevent neutrophil activation.

In this Review, Greg Lemke explains how macrophages are able to sense and respond to dead and dying cells. The author discusses the physiological implications of such macrophage activity.

Two new studies show that the inflammasome protein NLRP1B becomes activated in response to pathogen-induced proteasomal degradation of its N-terminal fragment, thereby acting as a sensor of its own stability.