Immunological disorders articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Autoreactive T cells that target myelin antigens in the peripheral nerves are present in patients with the demyelinating form of Guillain–Barré syndrome, and these T cells are likely to contribute to disease pathophysiology.

    • L. Súkeníková
    • , A. Mallone
    •  & D. Latorre
  • Article |

    cis-RNA editing quantitative trait loci, which are associated with immunogenic double-stranded RNAs, underlie genome-wide association study variants in common autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

    • Qin Li
    • , Michael J. Gloudemans
    •  & Jin Billy Li
  • Article |

    Alanine-scanning mutagenesis is used to identify the PF4 epitope that is recognized by anti-PF4 antibodies in patients with vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopaenia, revealing that the epitope corresponds to the heparin-binding site on PF4.

    • Angela Huynh
    • , John G. Kelton
    •  & Ishac Nazy
  • Article |

    Mapping enhancer regulation across human cell types and tissues illuminates genome function and provides a resource to connect risk variants for common diseases to their molecular and cellular functions.

    • Joseph Nasser
    • , Drew T. Bergman
    •  & Jesse M. Engreitz
  • Review Article |

    This review discusses how single-cell profiling and other technological advances are increasing our understanding of the mechanisms of fibrosis, thereby accelerating the discovery, development and testing of new treatments.

    • Neil C. Henderson
    • , Florian Rieder
    •  & Thomas A. Wynn
  • Article |

    An HLA- and gluten-dependent mouse model of coeliac disease with villous atrophy provides evidence for the cooperative role of IL-15 and gluten-specific CD4+ T cells in licensing the full activation of cytotoxic T cells that are necessary for inducing epithelial damage.

    • Valérie Abadie
    • , Sangman M. Kim
    •  & Bana Jabri
  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Over ten years, the Human Microbiome Project has provided resources for studying the microbiome and its relationship to disease; this Perspective summarizes the key achievements and findings of the project and its relationship to the broader field.

    • Lita M. Proctor
    • , Heather H. Creasy
    •  & Curtis Huttenhower
  • Letter
    | Open Access

    An analysis of more than 10,000 metagenomes from the TEDDY study provides a detailed functional profile of the gut microbiome in relation to islet autoimmunity, and supports the protective effects of short-chain fatty acids in early-onset type 1 diabetes.

    • Tommi Vatanen
    • , Eric A. Franzosa
    •  & Ramnik J. Xavier
  • Article |

    High salt intake changed the gut microbiome and increased TH17 cell numbers in mice, and reduced intestinal survival of Lactobacillus species, increased the number of TH17 cells and increased blood pressure in humans.

    • Nicola Wilck
    • , Mariana G. Matus
    •  & Dominik N. Müller
  • Outlook |

    Helminths are worms that can live in the human intestine. Joel Weinstock, a gastroenterologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, studies how they affect inflammation and the body's immune response. He spoke to Nature about how helminths might lead to treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

    • Neil Savage
  • Outlook |

    Gene exploration is providing unexpected insights into inflammatory bowel disease, and getting scientists closer to finding treatments that target the biological mechanisms.

    • Sarah DeWeerdt
  • Outlook |

    Four regenerative and immune-system therapies taking on the toughest cases of inflammatory bowel disease.

    • Eric Bender
  • Outlook |

    Transplants of faecal matter have done wonders for the treatment of certain gastrointestinal infections. Will they ever work for inflammatory bowel disease?

    • Liam Drew
  • Article |

    Nanoparticles coated with autoantigenic peptides bound to MHC class II molecules suppress established autoimmune disease by inducing antigen-specific TR1-like regulatory T cells in mouse and humanized mouse models.

    • Xavier Clemente-Casares
    • , Jesus Blanco
    •  & Pere Santamaria
  • Letter |

    A study of the super-enhancer landscape in three mouse T-helper lymphocyte subsets identifies nodes that have key roles in cell identity, with the locus encoding Bach2, a key negative regulator of effector differentiation, emerging as the most prominent T-cell super-enhancer.

    • Golnaz Vahedi
    • , Yuka Kanno
    •  & John J. O’Shea
  • Letter |

    Cationic substances, including some drugs, can activate mast cells in an IgE-independent manner, leading to histamine release, inflammation and airway contraction; here, the G-protein-coupled receptor MrgprB2, the orthologue of human MRGPRX2, is shown to be the sole mast cell receptor for these substances in mice.

    • Benjamin D. McNeil
    • , Priyanka Pundir
    •  & Xinzhong Dong
  • Letter |

    Here, the predominant murine immunoglobulin G subclass, IgG1, which is a poor activator of effector mechanisms, is shown to have a regulatory function, protecting against the development of IgG3 immune-complex-driven renal disease by competing with IgG3 for antigen and increasing immune complex solubility.

    • Richard T. Strait
    • , Monica T. Posgai
    •  & Fred D. Finkelman
  • Letter |

    Failure of integrin-mediated cell-matrix attachment is sufficient to initiate dermal fibrosis and autoimmunity in mouse models of scleroderma; integrin-modulating therapies prevent the recruitment and activation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells that appear central to immunological dysregulation and maintenance of the pro-fibrotic synthetic programme.

    • Elizabeth E. Gerber
    • , Elena M. Gallo
    •  & Harry C. Dietz
  • Letter |

    Diverse autoimmune and allergic diseases are associated with polymorphisms in a locus encoding the transcription factor BACH2; here, BACH2 is shown to be a broad regulator of immune activation that stabilizes the differentiation of Treg cells by repressing commitment of CD4+ T cells to alternate cell fates.

    • Rahul Roychoudhuri
    • , Kiyoshi Hirahara
    •  & Nicholas P. Restifo
  • Letter |

    A search for variants in coding exons of 25 genome-wide association study risk genes in a large cohort of autoimmune patients finds that rare coding-region variants at known loci have a negligible role in common autoimmune disease susceptibility, arguing against the previously proposed rare-variant synthetic genome-wide association hypothesis.

    • Karen A. Hunt
    • , Vanisha Mistry
    •  & David A. van Heel
  • Review Article |

    A discussion of progress in macrophage biology, examining their classification, diverse lineages, identities and regulation, their roles in regulating normal physiology and development, and their identification as therapeutic targets in human diseases.

    • Thomas A. Wynn
    • , Ajay Chawla
    •  & Jeffrey W. Pollard
  • Outlook |

    Science is finally getting to grips with this enigmatic autoimmune disease.

    • James Mitchell Crow
  • Outlook |

    • Michelle Grayson
  • Outlook |

    The latest drugs hold fantastic promise for people with severe psoriasis. But where are the treatment options for the far larger number with less serious cases?

    • James Mitchell Crow
  • Outlook |

    As the link between stress and psoriasis flare-ups becomes clearer, it seems the most vulnerable patients require a new type of treatment.

    • Sarah DeWeerdt
  • Outlook |

    Psoriasis can have a profound impact on patients' emotional and social lives. Christopher Griffiths, a dermatologist at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, discusses the disease's psychological fallout and its links with stress.

    • Christopher Griffiths
  • Outlook |

    Severe psoriasis carries cardiovascular risks. Dermatologists should consider more than just patients' outer layers, argues Henning Boehncke.

    • Wolf-Henning Boehncke
  • Outlook |

    Recent discoveries are redefining the role of the immune system in psoriasis, and may help to unravel the mystery of the disease's origins.

    • Ken Garber
  • Outlook |

    Our skin is home to thousands of species of bacteria — and when these microscopic societies are disrupted, skin infections can arise.

    • Bijal Trivedi
  • Outlook |

    No mere passive barrier, the skin is being revealed to be an active part of the immune system. Researchers are now starting to understand its role in driving psoriasis.

    • Claire Ainsworth
  • Letter |

    Interleukin-1β-induced disruption to endothelial stability and vascular permeability in a human in vitro model is shown to be independent of downstream nuclear factor-κB activation, relying instead on a MYD88–ARNO–ARF6 signalling cascade; inhibiting proteins involved in this pathway is shown to improve outcomes in animal models of inflammatory disease.

    • Weiquan Zhu
    • , Nyall R. London
    •  & Dean Y. Li