Applied immunology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Ratley, Zeldin et al. implicate xylene in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis by combining spatial analysis and patient surveys with prior epidemiological and mechanistic data. They propose that exposure of healthy skin commensals to xylene, benzene and isocyantes in synthetic fabrics disrupts normal lipid metabolism and activates itching.

The use of bispecific antibodies to target tumour-specific epitopes presented by MHC molecules in tumour tissue is a promising avenue for cancer immunotherapy. Here the authors use a mass-spectrometry guided analysis to identify off-target MHC-peptide complexes that bind to TCR-like antibodies next to the target peptide, enabling a novel approach to monitoring of antibody specificity during clinical maturation and development.

In this Review, the authors discuss recent advances, current challenges and future prospects in exploiting both vertebrate and invertebrate immune systems for the control of flaviviral and alphaviral diseases.

SARS-CoV-2 immune responses after vaccination in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) remain poorly understood. Here, using mass cytometry, the authors demonstrate that, following three doses of mRNA vaccine, patients with MS have distinct metabolic profiles in antigen-specific B and T cells.

CRISPR–Cas12a was used to directly replace mouse antibody variable chain genes with human versions in primary B cells. The edited cells underwent affinity maturation in vivo, improving the potency of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies without loss of bioavailability. Affinity maturation of edited cells also enables new vaccine models and adaptive B cell therapies.

In patients with resected, high-risk melanoma, the addition of a personalized mRNA-based neoantigen therapy to adjuvant pembrolizumab was more effective than pembrolizumab alone.