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Allergy is an inappropriate immune response to otherwise harmless antigens. Allergy requires initial sensitization with a specific antigen. The subsequent exposure to the same antigen can then result in pathologic reactions mediated by immunoglobulin E (IgE), mast cells and basophils.
Allergic asthma is episodic and associated with seasonal changes which may have links with UV exposure levels. Here the authors propose a link between UVB exposure and ILC2 function through α-MSH released from the pituitary gland which accumulates in the serum and alters ILC2 function through the MC5R receptor.
Interleukin 9 (IL-9) is a cytokine that plays causative role in airway inflammation of both infectious and allergic origin. Here authors show in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection that IL-9, predominantly produced by helper T cells, plays a critical pathogenic role in COVID-19 via an inflammatory pathway involving the transcription factor Foxo1.
Two studies in Nature describe the mechanisms that underlie allergen avoidance behaviour in mice, linking allergen sensing in the gut to a protective behavioural response to repeated ingestion of allergen.
Bystander activation that leads to expression of IL-9 in effector TH9 cells is induced by a TCR-independent, STAT-dependent mechanism and may represent a new strategy for therapeutic intervention to treat TH9-induced pathologies in vivo.
For blind and visually impaired astronomers, sonification of data creates opportunities for research and outreach. But for everyone, this Focus issue lays out the benefits of complementing vision-based data analysis tools with data sonification.
In airway epithelial cells, exposure to allergen proteases induces the stress granules-mediated transfer of IL-33 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and extracellular release through gasdermin D pores containing a newly described active fragment.
