Volume 22 Issue 2, February 2022

At the population level we are seeing milder disease during the Omicron wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Is this due to the virus or pre-existing immunity, and what should we expect next?

The RNA helicase DDX17 is identified as the sensor for a non-canonical NLRC4–NLRP3 inflammasome activated by endogenous retrotransposons in sterile inflammation.

A preprint by Jerby-Arnon et al. uses a novel algorithm for scRNAseq data to describe a pan-cancer programme for dysfunctional tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes that predicts response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy.

Loss of oscillatory expression of KLF4 in aged macrophages disrupts circadian immune functions and increases susceptibility to bacterial infections.

The transcription factor NFAT acts as a checkpoint in activated platelets to control their aggregation and interaction with neutrophils, keeping thrombotic and inflammatory responses in check.

Less than a month after the sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant was first announced, a number of articles in Nature and Cell examine its immune evasion characteristics.

Hyperactivation of the complement system has been implicated in the pathology of COVID-19. Here the authors bring together the latest information on the role of complement in COVID-19 and progress in targeting complement components for treatment of severe disease.

This Review discusses our current understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of cytokine release syndrome and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome associated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies, and how this might be used for the prevention or management of these toxicities.

In this Review, Maria Mittelbrunn and colleagues highlight the involvement of T cells in diseases associated with ageing. In particular, the authors discuss how T cells contribute to inflammageing and the potential of targeting these populations for therapy of age-related diseases.

This Review covers the role of natural killer cells in acute and chronic viral infections, with emphasis on human infections and insights from patients with primary immunodeficiencies affecting natural killer cells. It also describes the emerging data on how natural killer cells are involved in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

This Review discusses the immunomodulatory effects of radiotherapy on both the tumour microenvironment and surrounding healthy tissue. The authors explain how radiotherapy can cause chronic inflammation and organ dysfunction in patients, and, in particular, they consider the impact of radiotherapy-induced immune effects in the lungs and intestine.