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In contrast to horizontal transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) between adults, which often leads to self-limited acute infection, vertical transmission of HBV from mother to child often leads to chronic infection. However, the mechanisms linking vertical transmission with chronic infection are not known. We developed a mouse model to study the effect of maternal HBV infection on HBV persistence...
Regulatory T (Treg) cells expressing Foxp3 transcripton factor are essential for immune homeostasis. They arise in the thymus as a separate lineage from conventional CD4+Foxp3− T (Tconv) cells. Here, we show that the thymic development of Treg cells depends on the expression of their endogenous cognate self-antigen. The formation of these cells was impaired in mice lacking this self-antigen, while...
Hemorrhagic stroke, primarily caused by rupture of blood vessels in the brain, is a leading cause of death and disability in adults. In this issue of Immunity, Liu et al. (2016) demonstrate that repair of cerebrovascular ruptures can be directly mediated by myeloid cells.
Inhibition of immune regulatory checkpoints, such as CTLA-4 and the PD-1-PD-L1 axis, is at the forefront of immunotherapy for cancers of various histological types. However, such immunotherapies fail to control neoplasia in a significant proportion of patients. Here, we review how a range of cancer-cell-autonomous cues, tumor-microenvironmental factors, and host-related influences might account for...
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting many medically important viruses such as those that cause Zika and dengue. The inoculation of viruses into mosquito bite sites is an important and common stage of all mosquito-borne virus infections. We show, using Semliki Forest virus and Bunyamwera virus, that these viruses use this inflammatory niche to aid their replication and dissemination...
Effective pathogens are successful, by definition, because they can defeat our immune response. Pingen et al. (2016) in this issue of Immunity demonstrate that some mosquito-transmitted viruses depend upon a strong host immune response triggered by the innate immune response to the bite to promote dissemination through the body.
Engineering T cells with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) has demonstrated remarkable success in eradicating hematological malignancies. In this issue of Immunity, June and colleagues demonstrate the broad antitumor efficacy of a newly-designed CAR targeting the O-linked hypoglycosylated epitopes Tn and sialyl-Tn on cancer-associated MUC-1.
Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) serve non-overlapping functions in immune responses. In this issue of Immunity, Pearce and colleagues (2016) report that pDCs use different metabolic pathways from cDCs to support their specialized function.
T follicular helper (Tfh) cells promote affinity maturation of B cells in germinal centers (GCs), whereas T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells limit the GC reaction. Store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) through Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channels mediated by STIM and ORAI proteins is a fundamental signaling pathway in T lymphocytes. Conditional deletion of Stim1 and Stim2 genes in T cells abolished...
Obesity has been shown to increase the morbidity of infections, however, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that obesity caused adiponectin deficiency in the bone marrow (BM), which led to an inflamed BM characterized by increased tumor necrosis factor (TNF) production from bone marrow macrophages. Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) chronically exposed...
Catabolic stress can lead to changes in circulating acetate levels. In this issue of Immunity, Balmer et al. (2016) report that serum acetate increases in response to acute infection and describe a mechanism by which this results in acetylation of the glycolytic enzyme GAPDH and improves the recall function of memory CD8+ T cells.
Genetically modified T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) demonstrate robust responses against lineage restricted, non-essential targets in hematologic cancers. However, in solid tumors, the full potential of CAR T cell therapy is limited by the availability of cell surface antigens with sufficient cancer-specific expression. The majority of CAR targets have been normal self-antigens...
Greater understanding of the complex host responses induced by type 1 interferon (IFN) cytokines could allow new therapeutic approaches for diseases in which these cytokines are implicated. We found that in response to the Toll-like receptor-9 agonist CpGA, plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) produced type 1 IFNs, which, through an autocrine type 1 IFN receptor-dependent pathway, induced changes in...
How systemic metabolic alterations during acute infections impact immune cell function remains poorly understood. We found that acetate accumulates in the serum within hours of systemic bacterial infections and that these increased acetate concentrations are required for optimal memory CD8+ T cell function in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, upon uptake by memory CD8+ T cells, stress levels of...
Two zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs)—SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV—have crossed species to cause severe human respiratory disease. Here, we showed that induction of airway memory CD4+ T cells specific for a conserved epitope shared by SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV is a potential strategy for developing pan-coronavirus vaccines. Airway memory CD4+ T cells differed phenotypically and functionally from lung-derived cells...
T helper 17 (Th17) cells are prominently featured in multiple autoimmune diseases, but the regulatory mechanisms that control Th17 cell responses are poorly defined. Here we found that stimulation of OX40 triggered a robust chromatin remodeling response and produced a “closed” chromatin structure at interleukin-17 (IL-17) locus to inhibit Th17 cell function. OX40 activated the NF-κB family member...
Receptor CD300b is implicated in regulating the immune response to bacterial infection by an unknown mechanism. Here, we identified CD300b as a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding receptor and determined the mechanism underlying CD300b augmentation of septic shock. In vivo depletion and adoptive transfer studies identified CD300b-expressing macrophages as the key cell type augmenting sepsis. We showed...
Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) offer new avenues for HIV prevention and cure strategies. Three recent papers, published in Science and Nature, highlight the broad applicability of bNAbs in HIV cure and prevention and in boosting immunity against HIV.
Although numerous polymorphisms have been associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), identifying the function of these genetic factors has proved challenging. Here we identified a role for nine genes in IBD susceptibility loci in antibacterial autophagy and characterized a role for one of these genes, GPR65, in maintaining lysosome function. Mice lacking Gpr65, a proton-sensing G protein-coupled...
T helper 17 (Th17) cells are key players in autoimmune diseases. However, the roles of non-coding RNAs in Th17 cell development and function are largely unknown. We found that deletion of the endoribonuclease-encoding Dicer1 specifically in Th17 cells protected mice from experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. We found that the Dicer1-regulated microRNA (miR)-183-96-182 cluster (miR-183C) was highly...
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