Immunology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based therapy for the treatment of liver cancer represents a promising therapeutic strategy. Here the authors show that CD147-targeting CAR-NK or CAR-T can induce anti-tumor activity against hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo.

    • Hsiang-chi Tseng
    • , Wei Xiong
    •  & Dongfang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Signaling of IL-33 via its receptor, ST2, has been implicated in macrophage function in tissue repair. Here the authors show, using genetic mouse models and single-cell transcriptomic data, that the IL-33/ST2 axis regulates both ILC2-derived IL-13 and macrophage differentiation/reparative function required for club cell regeneration.

    • Rania Dagher
    • , Alan M. Copenhaver
    •  & Marina Pretolani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Culture-based diagnostic methods for microorganism detection are time-consuming but still the gold standard for conditions such as sepsis. Here the authors present an amplification and purification-free method to detect microorganisms in bodily fluids with high sensitivity: Single MOLecule Tethering (SMOLT).

    • Wen-Chih Cheng
    • , Troy Horn
    •  & Alfredo Celedon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) commonly affects patients with skin psoriasis, but its pathogenesis is still unclear. Here the authors use two types of single-cells data, mass cytometry and RNA sequencing, to describe the expansion and diversity of synovial, but not peripheral blood, CD8 T cells from PsA patients to provide a molecular immune landscape for PsA.

    • Frank Penkava
    • , Martin Del Castillo Velasco-Herrera
    •  & M. Hussein Al-Mossawi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) are immune cells present in adipose tissue that contribute to metabolic homeostasis. Here the authors show that Death Receptor 3 (DR3) engagement on ILC2s ameliorates glucose tolerance, protects against insulin-resistance onset and reverses established insulin-resistance.

    • Pedram Shafiei-Jahani
    • , Benjamin P. Hurrell
    •  & Omid Akbari

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pathogenic agents can spread from an initial to a secondary site via the lymphatics. Here, using a mouse model of infection, the authors show that S. pyogenes readily transit through sequential lymph nodes within efferent lymphatics to reach the bloodstream and drive systemic infection, while remaining extracellular.

    • Matthew K. Siggins
    • , Nicola N. Lynskey
    •  & Shiranee Sriskandan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antibody mediated immunity to SARS-CoV-2 will affect future transmission and disease severity. This systematic review on antibody response to coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and endemic coronaviruses provides insights into kinetics, correlates of protection, and association with disease severity.

    • Angkana T. Huang
    • , Bernardo Garcia-Carreras
    •  & Derek A. T. Cummings

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) represent a complex disease with limited treatment options. Here, the authors compare human RNASeq patient data from DFU, oral mucosa and skin acute wounds, identifying FOXM1 as a mediator of macrophage and neutrophil recruitment, which contributes to disease pathogenesis and is dysregulated in patients.

    • Andrew P. Sawaya
    • , Rivka C. Stone
    •  & Marjana Tomic-Canic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inflammasome activation plays a role in malaria pathogenesis, but details aren’t well understood. Here, the authors show that caspase-8 is a central mediator of systemic inflammation in rodent malaria and that monocytes from malaria patients express active caspases-1, -4 and -8.

    • Larissa M. N. Pereira
    • , Patrícia A. Assis
    •  & Ricardo T. Gazzinelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-20 promotes tumor growth in several cancer types. Here, the authors show that high levels of IL-20 are associated with poor survival in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and that IL-20 blockade reduces tumor growth and alleviates cachexia symptoms in mouse models of PDAC.

    • Shao-Wei Lu
    • , Hong-Chin Pan
    •  & Ming-Shi Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    HMGB1 is an inflammatory mediator released by a variety of cell types. Here, the authors show that unlike IL-1β, HMGB1 is released non-specifically following cell lysis.

    • Allen Volchuk
    • , Anna Ye
    •  & Neil M. Goldenberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Influenza exposure in early childhood can affect the immune response to distinct viral strains later in life. Here, Gouma et al. show that contemporary 3c2.A H3N2 virus infections boost non-neutralizing H3N2 antibodies in middle-aged individuals, potentially leaving them vulnerable to recurrent infections.

    • Sigrid Gouma
    • , Kangchon Kim
    •  & Scott E. Hensley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inhibiting TGF-β1 to increase immune responses against tumors bears the risk of tumor-promoting toxicity. Here the authors show that selectively blocking TGF-β1 produced by immunosuppressive cells is feasible with anti-GARP:TGF-β1 antibodies and improves the efficacy of PD-1 blockade immunotherapy.

    • Grégoire de Streel
    • , Charlotte Bertrand
    •  & Sophie Lucas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Arterial macrophages develop from either yolk sac or bone marrow progenitors. Here, the author show that ageing-induced reduction of arterial macrophages is not replenished by bone marrow-derived cells, but under inflammatory conditions circulating monocytes are recruited to maintain homeostasis, while arterial macrophages of yolk sac origin carry out tissue repair.

    • Tobias Weinberger
    • , Dena Esfandyari
    •  & Christian Schulz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious and poorly understood medical condition. Here, the authors show that TBI induces long-lasting deficits in brain lymphatic drainage. They report that defects in this drainage pathway provoke severe TBI pathogenesis that can be rescued with VEGF-C treatment.

    • Ashley C. Bolte
    • , Arun B. Dutta
    •  & John R. Lukens

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anti-androgen therapy inhibits prostate cancer (PC) progression, and is thought to act directly on cancer cells. Here the authors show that androgen receptor is expressed on normal and PC-associated macrophages, and its stimulation alters macrophage secretome to promote migration of cultured PC cell lines.

    • Bianca Cioni
    • , Anniek Zaalberg
    •  & Andries M. Bergman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Evidence for transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic information in vertebrates is scarce. Here the authors report that homozygous dnmt1 mutant zebrafish are essentially normal, with the exception of impaired lymphopoiesis, with impaired larval (but not adult) T cell development being transmitted to subsequent generations by genotypically wildtype fish.

    • Norimasa Iwanami
    • , Divine-Fondzenyuy Lawir
    •  & Thomas Boehm

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma may be initiated by acinar metaplasia, but the molecular and cellular insights during this transition are unclear. Here the authors show, using single cell RNA-sequencing analyses, that mouse metaplastic acinar cells can be clustered into six cell types or states that are heterogeneous and have unique transcription programs.

    • Yehuda Schlesinger
    • , Oshri Yosefov-Levi
    •  & Oren Parnas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lancelet expresses an ancestral RAG transposon, ProtoRAG, which predates human RAGgenes that are responsible for V(D)J recombination and adaptive immunity repertoire generation. Here the authors show that ProtoRAG is functionally regulated by a trans-acting factor, bbYY1, for tuning transposon activity and maintaining genome stability.

    • Song Liu
    • , Shaochun Yuan
    •  & Anlong Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Excess antigenic exposure, such as in cancers or chronic viral infection, can lead to T cell exhaustion. Here the authors show that despite high exposure to antigen in the context of chronic LCMV infection in mice, exhausted CD8+ T cells have low levels of TCR signalling that can be reactivated by PD-L1 blockade.

    • Ioana Sandu
    • , Dario Cerletti
    •  & Annette Oxenius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tissue resident CD8 + T cells present at mucosal surfaces are poised to elicit function in situ, however approaches to boost their number in the gastrointestinal mucosa has been limited. Here the authors combine the use of Listeria monocytogenese and transient depletion of the intestinal microbiome to boost the resident CD8 + T cell response.

    • Simone Becattini
    • , Eric R. Littmann
    •  & Eric G. Pamer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intestinal IL-22 has important regulatory effects on the barrier and intestinal diseases and its production is controlled by the intestinal microbiome. Here the authors show that intestinal immune cell production of IL-22 is regulated by short chain fatty acids via an aryl hydrocarbon receptor and HIF1α-mediated mechanism that protects mice from intestinal inflammation.

    • Wenjing Yang
    • , Tianming Yu
    •  & Yingzi Cong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How the Drosophila lymph gland hemocytes develop and are regulated at a single-cell level is unclear. Here, the authors use single-cell RNA sequencing to show heterogeneity of developing hemocytes in the lymph gland and how they react to wasp infestation, and compare hemocytes from two independent origins.

    • Bumsik Cho
    • , Sang-Ho Yoon
    •  & Jiwon Shim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Identifying peptides that can bind major histocompatibility complex II (MHC-II) is important for our understanding of T cell immunity and specificity. Here the authors present a yeast-display library screening approach that identifies more potential binders than various reported algorithms to help expand our understanding for antigen presentation.

    • C. Garrett Rappazzo
    • , Brooke D. Huisman
    •  & Michael E. Birnbaum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, Hanke et al. immunize an alpaca with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein domains and identify a nanobody that binds the receptor binding domain of spike in both the up and down conformations and sterically hinders ACE2 engagement.

    • Leo Hanke
    • , Laura Vidakovics Perez
    •  & Gerald M. McInerney

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some infants develop broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) to HIV in a shorter time frame than adults, but the reasons aren’t well understood. Here, the authors study a cohort of 51 HIV-1 clade C perinatally infected infants of Indian origin and find that multivariant infection is associated with bnAbs in elite neutralizers.

    • Nitesh Mishra
    • , Shaifali Sharma
    •  & Kalpana Luthra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The developmental origins and functions of testis macrophages remain incompletely characterized. Here, the authors show, using histology, high-dimensional mass cytometry and cell fate-mapping data, that interstitial and peritubular macrophages originate from distinct precursors and contribute distinctly to spermatogenesis.

    • Emmi Lokka
    • , Laura Lintukorpi
    •  & Marko Salmi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    COVID-19 disease is less common in children than adults, but the extent to which SARS-CoV-2 infections are missed through symptom-driven testing is not well understood. In this study, the authors show that approximately 1% of children seeking care for reasons other than COVID-19 at a Seattle hospital in March/April 2020 were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2.

    • Adam S. Dingens
    • , Katharine H. D. Crawford
    •  & Jesse D. Bloom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of neutrophils in the regulation of tumour growth and metastasis remains controversial. Here, the authors demonstrate that neutrophils, by exerting inhibitory effects on cytotoxic NK cells, show a net pro-metastatic effect in immune-competent mice, while they are tumoricidal and anti-metastatic in NK cell-deficient hosts.

    • Peishan Li
    • , Ming Lu
    •  & Guangwen Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Innate T cells such as iNKT, MAIT and γδ T cells all develop in the thymus, but their differentiation paths are still unclear. Here, the authors show, using single-cell RNA sequencing, that all three cell types develop via shared and branched differentiation paths that are corroborated by additional results from gene-deficient mice and human liver T cells.

    • Minji Lee
    • , Eunmin Lee
    •  & You Jeong Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Salt levels in culture affect the polarisation of Th17 cells, which normally protect the host from fungal and bacterial infections. Here, the authors study patients with salt-losing tubulopathies (SLT) to find that, while Th17 immunity is dampened in SLT patients, their Th17-inducing signaling pathways are intact and can be reinvigorated by exogenous salt.

    • Rhys D. R. Evans
    • , Marilina Antonelou
    •  & Alan D. Salama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organ transplantation involving aged donors is often confounded by reduced post-transplantation organ survival. By studying both human organs and mouse transplantation models, here the authors show that pretreating the donors with senolytics to reduce mitochondria DNA and pro-inflammatory dendritic cells may help promote survival of aged organs.

    • Jasper Iske
    • , Midas Seyda
    •  & Stefan G. Tullius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, Noy-Porat, Makdasi et al. report the isolation of a panel of neutralizing mAbs selected against SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) from a phage display library constructed based on patient samples collected in the acute phase of the disease, which show efficient neutralizing activities against authentic virus in vitro.

    • Tal Noy-Porat
    • , Efi Makdasi
    •  & Ronit Rosenfeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How extracellular calcium can trigger Nlrp3 inflammasome activation has been somewhat controversial and unclear. Here the authors show calciprotein particles are taken up by myeloid cells via calcium-sensing receptor-dependent macropinocytosis in response to high levels of extracellular Ca2+ and this pathway might be critical to inflammatory conditions.

    • Elisabeth Jäger
    • , Supriya Murthy
    •  & Ulf Wagner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In hematopoietic stem cell transplants, T cells mediate graft-versus-leukemia (GVL), but GVL can fail leading to leukemia relapse. Here the authors use a mouse model in which T cells target the minor histocompatibility antigen H60 to show how this can occur, characterize the CD8+ T cell response and demonstrate how anti-CD40 antibody therapy improves GVL.

    • Meng Zhou
    • , Faruk Sacirbegovic
    •  & Warren D. Shlomchik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gallbladder cancer incidence shows characteristic geographic patterns. Here the authors perform a genomic analysis of gallbladder cancers in patients from countries with high incidence (South Korea, India and Chile) and identify ELF3 and other significantly mutated genes not previously associated with gallbladder cancer.

    • Akhilesh Pandey
    • , Eric W. Stawiski
    •  & Somasekar Seshagiri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chronic inflammation is a feature of age-related regenerative decline in skeletal muscles, but how it directly affects resident muscle stem cell fate and function is unclear. Here, the authors show that Ccr2 signaling in muscle stem cell derived progenitors represses terminal myogenic differentiation, and that targeting Ccr2 on aged myogenic progenitors rejuvenates aged skeletal muscle healing and function.

    • Roméo S. Blanc
    • , Jacob G. Kallenbach
    •  & Joe V. Chakkalakal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Herpesvirus virions have an outer lipid membrane dotted with glycoproteins that enable fusion with cell membranes to initiate entry and establish infection. Here the authors elucidate the structural mechanism of a neutralizing antibody derived from a patient infected by the herpesvirus varicella-zoster virus and targeted to its fusogen, glycoprotein-B.

    • Stefan L. Oliver
    • , Yi Xing
    •  & Ann M. Arvin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrophages survey their surroundings using macropinocytosis, but its regulation is unclear. Here, the authors report that SLIT2, a known inhibitor of Rac GTPases, is an endogenous inhibitor of macropinocytosis, and that SLIT2 limits the uptake of NOD2 ligands into immune cells and subsequent release of the inflammatory chemokine, CXCL1, in vivo.

    • Vikrant K. Bhosle
    • , Tapas Mukherjee
    •  & Lisa A. Robinson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    T-cell activation primarily occurs in the lymph nodes, highly organized and specialized secondary lymphoid organs. Here the authors show that the acidic extracellular pH in lymph node paracortical zones limits cytokine production by effector T-cells, but does not alter their activation by antigen-presenting cells.

    • Hao Wu
    • , Veronica Estrella
    •  & Robert J. Gillies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3) are involved in maintaining gut immune homeostasis. Here the authors identify a circular RNA, circKcnt2, to be induced in ILC3s from inflamed gut, yet circKcnt2 deletion aggravates mouse experimental colitis, thereby implicating circKcnt2 as a potential feedback regulator of ILC3 activation and gut immunity.

    • Benyu Liu
    • , Buqing Ye
    •  & Zusen Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ageing of the haematopoietic system is accompanied by declining erythropoiesis and lymphopoiesis. Here the authors uncover upregulated IL-6 and TGFβ signalling in aged bone marrow stroma; inhibition of these signals reverses age-related haematopoietic defects, re-balancing haematopoietic stem cell lineage output.

    • Simona Valletta
    • , Alexander Thomas
    •  & Claus Nerlov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A vaccine preventing infection and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is needed. Here, Wu et al. generate an adenovirus-vector vaccine expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and show that a single dose of mucosal vaccination protects mice and ferrets from infection and inhibits virus replication in the upper respiratory tract.

    • Shipo Wu
    • , Gongxun Zhong
    •  & Wei Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    As macrophages switch to a proinflammatory gylcolytic state they start to generate triglyceride-rich lipid droplets, but what function these droplets have in this context is not clear. Here the authors show that this triglyceride synthesis is requisite for prostaglandin E2 production and subsequent inflammatory activation.

    • Angela Castoldi
    • , Lauar B. Monteiro
    •  & Edward J. Pearce

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cause of clonal expansions in the HIV reservoir remains unclear. Here, Gantner et al. perform single-cell TCR sequencing on longitudinal samples from eight individuals on antiretroviral therapy and find that antigens inducing clonal expansions of memory cells are major contributors to the HIV reservoir.

    • Pierre Gantner
    • , Amélie Pagliuzza
    •  & Nicolas Chomont

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The latent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reservoir in patients poses a problem for HIV cure. Here, Li et al. show that a combination of compounds inducing viral reactivation and cell death, inhibiting autophagy and blocking new infections can eliminate HIV infection in 50% of humanized HIV infected mice and in blood samples from infected patients.

    • Min Li
    • , Wei Liu
    •  & Jin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Production of polyphosphate polymers is a ubiquitous trait of bacteria. Here, the authors investigate the role of bacterial long polyphosphates in host immune suppression and show that long polyphosphates produced by E. coli inhibit LPS-mediated inflammation and bacterial clearance in mice.

    • Julian Roewe
    • , Georgios Stavrides
    •  & Markus Bosmann

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Immunology across other nature.com journals