Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The explosion of single-cell and systems approaches in immunology risks leaving the uninitiated behind. This guide to systems immunology is designed for immunologists who want an introduction to the area.
Boussiotis and colleagues review the hallmarks of tumor-associated macrophages and discuss the mechanisms that contribute to their pathophysiological adaptations to the tumor microenvironment.
Yu et al. review the roles played by follicular helper T cells in sustaining germinal center B cell responses and vaccination strategies, as well as potential pathogenic autoimmune responses.
Zehn and colleagues review the cellular fates and precursor trajectories that allow antigen-specific CD8+ T cells to persist in the face of chronic infection and cancer.
The transcription factor TCF-1 has multiple roles during T cell development and in mature T cells. Gounari and Khazaie review the potential mechanisms by which TCF-1 regulates gene expression.
Enormous progress has been made in the ten years since immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) was first approved for treating melanoma. Zappasodi and Huang review the current state of the art of ICB for melanoma and prospects for the future.
Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is central to both homeostatic and pathophysiological events. Kroemer et al. review the mechanisms of ICD and its role in therapy and disease.
It is increasingly obvious that individuals are experiencing post-COVID-19 syndromes, or ‘long-haul COVID’. Here, Merad and Mehandru eview currently available knowledge of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of these sequelae, elaborating on persistent inflammation, induced autoimmunity and putative viral reservoirs.
Children are generally resistant to severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection, but cases of pediatric COVID-19 and a new syndrome called MIS-C can occur. In this Review, the authors summarize what is known about the immunology of COVID-19 and MIS-C and how the pediatric response to SARS-CoV-2 is different from the immune response in adults.
The extreme diversity of the human immune system, forged and maintained throughout evolutionary history, provides a potent defense against opportunistic pathogens. Liston and colleagues review the current state of play in the field, identify the key unknowns in the causality of immune variation and identify the multidisciplinary pathways toward an improved understanding.
Schwartz and colleagues review the immune niches in the brain, the contribution of professional immune cells to brain functions and the relevance of immune components to brain aging and neurodegenerative disease.
T cell receptor–independent triggering of T cells is known as bystander activation. Shin and colleagues review the mechanisms and significance of bystander activation to homeostatic antimicrobial responses and immunopathology.
Sharpe and colleagues review salient aspects of CD8+ T cell dysfunction in cancer, chronic viral infections and autoimmunity, with a view of developing new ways to alleviate T cell exhaustion and enhance CD8+ T cell functions in cancer and chronic viral infection, as well as strategies to induce or augment exhaustion-like features to treat autoimmunity.