Immunological disorders

Research Highlights | 31 August 2011

Gene-therapy successes spur hope for embattled field

Technique now being tested in a range of conditions.

Erika Check Hayden

Letter | 17 August 2011

Cell-to-cell spread of HIV permits ongoing replication despite antiretroviral therapy

Alex Sigal
, Jocelyn T. Kim
& David Baltimore

Letter | 14 August 2011

TSLP promotes interleukin-3-independent basophil haematopoiesis and type 2 inflammation

Mark C. Siracusa
, Steven A. Saenz
& David Artis

Letter | 31 July 2011

FADD prevents RIP3-mediated epithelial cell necrosis and chronic intestinal inflammation

Patrick-Simon Welz
, Andy Wullaert
& Manolis Pasparakis

Article | 27 July 2011

Second messenger role for Mg²⁺ revealed by human T-cell immunodeficiency

Feng-Yen Li
, Benjamin Chaigne-Delalande
& Michael J. Lenardo

Research Highlights | 20 July 2011

Control of T_H17 cells occurs in the small intestine

Enric Esplugues
, Samuel Huber
& Richard A. Flavell

News & Views | 29 June 2011

A protein called SAMHD1 seems to hinder the infection of key cells of the immune system by HIV-1. Cousins of this virus, however, produce a factor that overcomes the protective effects of SAMHD1. See Letters p.654 & p.658

Efrem S. Lim
& Michael Emerman

Letter | 19 June 2011

Intravenous gammaglobulin suppresses inflammation through a novel T_H2 pathway

Robert M. Anthony
, Toshihiko Kobayashi
& Jeffrey V. Ravetch

Research Highlights | 08 June 2011

Cells sense house dust

News Q&A | 07 June 2011

Treatment is prevention

Drug treatment for HIV infection is effective in preventing its spread, but implementing this fully will require more resources, says leading NIH scientist.

Erika Check Hayden

News | 06 June 2011

Cash cure for the AIDS epidemic?

South African researchers are testing whether financial incentives can stop HIV infection in teenagers.

Priya Shetty

Editorial | 01 June 2011

A big disease with a little name

Three decades on from the first published cases of what would later be recognized as AIDS, the social and cultural challenges of the disease remain.

Comment | 01 June 2011

Children of the AIDS pandemic

Practical support and psychosocial interventions are desperately needed to help those dealing with the fallout of AIDS, says Lucie Cluver.

Lucie Cluver

Comment | 01 June 2011

Stigma impedes AIDS prevention

Medical advances cannot help those who deny they are at risk of HIV and avoid HIV tests. Salim S. Abdool Karim describes how such attitudes may be overcome.

Salim S. Abdool Karim

News & Views | 25 May 2011

Persistence pays off

Developing AIDS vaccines has been a frustrating business. A vaccine that triggers immune responses that effectively control early infection by the simian counterpart of HIV in macaques seems promising. See Letter p.523

R. Paul Johnson

News Feature | 25 May 2011

Vaccines: His best shot

Can Bruce Walker transform HIV vaccine research?

Corie Lok

Perspective | 25 May 2011

A 2020 vision for vaccines against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria

Rino Rappuoli
& Alan Aderem

News | 20 May 2011

AIDS mortality drops in China

Antiretroviral programme marks dramatic success, but report shows what still needs to be done.

David Cyranoski

Research Highlights | 18 May 2011

Taming psoriasis with vitamin D

Letter | 11 May 2011

Profound early control of highly pathogenic SIV by an effector memory T-cell vaccine

Scott G. Hansen
, Julia C. Ford
& Louis J. Picker

Comment | 27 April 2011

The rise of people power

Calls in Canada for trials of a contentious treatment for multiple sclerosis illustrate how social media can affect research priorities, say Roger Chafe and his colleagues.

Roger Chafe
, Karen B. Born
& Andreas Laupacis

News & Views | 27 April 2011

A helping hand against autoimmunity

The T_H17 helper cells of the immune system have a dark side: they mediate autoimmune disorders. Two drugs that prevent the differentiation and activity of these cells might be of therapeutic value. See Letters p.486 & p.491

Anton M. Jetten

Letter | 17 April 2011

Suppression of T_H17 differentiation and autoimmunity by a synthetic ROR ligand

Laura A. Solt
, Naresh Kumar
& Thomas P. Burris

Letter | 30 March 2011

SHARPIN is a component of the NF-κB-activating linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex

The ubiquitin conjugation system regulates the canonical NF-κB-activation pathway, which mediates immune responses. Linear polyubiquitin chains—in which the C-terminal glycine of ubiquitin is conjugated to the α-amino group of the amino-terminal methionine of another ubiquitin—are generated by a unique ubiquitin ligase complex called linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex (LUBAC) composed of two RING domain proteins called HOIL-1 and HOIP. This is one of three complementary studies identifying a novel component of the LUBAC complex called SHARPIN, which is recruited to receptor signalling complexes (RSCs) that form after TNF and CD40L stimulation. The LUBAC complex containing SHARPIN stimulates the formation of linear ubiquitin chains in vitro and in vivo and is required for the activation of NF-κB signalling.

Fuminori Tokunaga
, Tomoko Nakagawa
& Kazuhiro Iwai

Article | 30 March 2011

Linear ubiquitination prevents inflammation and regulates immune signalling

Björn Gerlach
, Stefanie M. Cordier
& Henning Walczak

Letter | 27 March 2011

Digoxin and its derivatives suppress T_H17 cell differentiation by antagonizing RORγt activity

Jun R. Huh
, Monica W. L. Leung
& Dan R. Littman

Article | 20 March 2011

Crystal structure of inhibitor of κB kinase β

Guozhou Xu
, Yu-Chih Lo
& Hao Wu

Research Highlights | 16 March 2011

Feedback loop in lupus

News | 10 March 2011

First lupus drug in half a century approved

A therapeutic antibody is the first success in a wave of experimental therapies aimed at tackling the autoimmune disease.

Heidi Ledford

Research Highlights | 02 March 2011

More sneezing in a warmer world

Letter | 02 March 2011

RIP3 mediates the embryonic lethality of caspase-8-deficient mice

Caspase-8 mediates apoptosis induced by death receptors. At the same time, this protease is able to prevent RIP-dependent necrosis. Without caspase-8 mice die during their embryonic development. Two papers now show that lethality is not caused by the absence of apoptosis, but by RIP3-dependent necrosis that is unleashed without caspase-8. Mice that lack both caspase-8 and RIP3 develop into viable, immunocompetent, fertile adult mice, but suffer from a progressive lymphoaccumulative disease similar to mice that lack the death receptor CD95.

William J. Kaiser
, Jason W. Upton
& Edward S. Mocarski

Letter | 02 March 2011

Catalytic activity of the caspase-8–FLIP_L complex inhibits RIPK3-dependent necrosis

Caspase-8 mediates apoptosis induced by death receptors. At the same time, this protease is able to prevent RIP-dependent necrosis. Without caspase-8 mice die during their embryonic development. Two papers now show that lethality is not caused by the absence of apoptosis, but by RIP3-dependent necrosis that is unleashed without caspase-8. Mice that lack both caspase-8 and RIP3 develop into viable, immunocompetent, fertile adult mice, but suffer from a progressive lymphoaccumulative disease similar to mice that lack the death receptor CD95. This paper further shows that caspase-8 forms a proteolytically active complex with FLIP_L, and that this complex is required for protection against RIP3-dependent necrosis.

Andrew Oberst
, Christopher P. Dillon
& Douglas R. Green

News | 01 March 2011

Targeted gene editing enters clinic

Patients with HIV first to receive experimental gene therapy.

Heidi Ledford

Review Article | 20 January 2011

Autophagy in immunity and inflammation

Beth Levine
, Noboru Mizushima
& Herbert W. Virgin

News & Views | 19 January 2011

Drugs that prevent HIV infection

Two human trials investigate the efficacy of a type of antiretroviral drug — usually used to treat HIV-infected individuals — in preventing HIV infection. The results are heartening.

Mark A. Wainberg

News Explainer | 14 January 2011

Is breast not best for babies?

New evidence contradicts World Health Organization breastfeeding advice.

Natasha Gilbert

News | 12 January 2011

Near-action shots of vital proteins

Structures of G-protein-coupled receptors visualized in near-active states.

Amy Maxmen

News | 23 November 2010

Drugs to treat HIV found to prevent infection

Antiretroviral drugs shown to cut HIV transmission to men at high risk.

Alla Katsnelson

News | 04 November 2010

HIV immunity is all in the amino acids

Worldwide study implicates structural changes in a protein binding site

Joseph Milton

Letter | 30 September 2010

Polyreactivity increases the apparent affinity of anti-HIV antibodies by heteroligation

During immune responses, antibodies are selected for their ability to bind to foreign antigens with high affinity, in part by their ability to undergo homotypic bivalent binding. However, this type of binding is not always possible. Here, the monoclonal antibodies produced in two infected subjects in response to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) glycoprotein have been analysed. The results provide evidence for polyreactivity, which may be required when the density of glycoprotein spikes is so low that bivalent binding is unlikely.

Hugo Mouquet
, Johannes F. Scheid
& Michel C. Nussenzweig

Research Highlights | 29 September 2010

Neuroimmunology: Autoimmune disease culprit

Research Highlights | 22 September 2010

Immunology: Vessels block inflammation

Letter | 08 September 2010

A trans-acting locus regulates an anti-viral expression network and type 1 diabetes risk

Here, a combination of genetic studies of gene expression, cross-species network analysis and genome-wide association studies has been used to identify gene networks and the loci underlying their regulation in rats. The results show that an inflammatory network driven by interferon regulatory factor 7 contributes to susceptibility to type 1 diabetes, and implicate the innate viral-response pathway and macrophages in the aetiology of this disease.

Matthias Heinig
, Enrico Petretto
& Stuart A. Cook

Research Highlights | 01 September 2010

Microbiology: Bacterial resettlement

Letter | 26 August 2010

IκBβ acts to inhibit and activate gene expression during the inflammatory response

Nuclear hypophosphorylated IκBβ is shown to bind p65:c-Rel dimers and maintain prolonged expression of TNF-α in response to stimulation by lipopolysaccharide.