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Neutrophils rapidly respond to bacterial and fungal infections but can cause substantial collateral tissue damage if not restrained. Rosenbauer and colleagues show that the transcription factor PU.1 serves a cell-intrinsic role to prevent over-exuberant neutrophil responses to fungal infection.
The cytokine IL-6 controls the survival, proliferation and effector functions of lymphocytes. Jones and colleagues show that activation of CD4+ T cells leads to suppression of STAT1 activation by tyrosine phosphatases and changes the effector characteristics of memory CD4+ T cells in response to IL-6.
The central nervous system meninges have a dense network of yolk sac–derived macrophages that serve a sentinel role. McGavern and colleagues show that this meningeal niche is replenished by bone marrow–derived inflammatory monocytes, which alters meningeal immune reactions after subsequent immune challenge.
Lymph fluid carries cells, debris and viruses to draining lymph nodes. Hickman and colleagues show that large viruses can enter lymph node conduits and gain access to dendritic cells positioned deep within lymph nodes for efficient presentation of antigen to CD8+ T cells.
The role of IFN-λ in adaptive immunity is not well characterized. Staeheli and colleagues show that in the lungs, IFN-λ elicits production of the cytokine TSLP from M cells and that this in turn is essential for effective adaptive immunity and control of infection with influenza virus.
Macrophages can shift their cellular metabolism in response to tissue cues and infection. Pearce and colleagues show that lipopolysaccharide-activated ‘inflammatory’ macrophages become depleted of NAD+ pools and require the salvage-pathway enzyme NAMPT to sustain cellular redox balance.
Determining TCR specificity represents a formidable technical barrier to the harnessing of T cell function. Kisielow and colleagues describe a novel platform for efficient determination of TCR specificities in a variety of infectious and cancer settings and in both human systems and mouse systems.
Veillette and colleagues show that receptors of the SLAM family promote the development of iNKT cells by reducing the strength of the TCR signal after positive selection.
Shulman and colleagues show that in contrast to events in lymph nodes and spleen, in Peyer’s patches, T cells promote B cell expansion without clonal selection during pre-germinal center events.
Interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) are a key component of the antiviral response. Pichlmair and colleagues generate a comprehensive ISG interactome that sheds light on their functions in antiviral responses.
Removal of damaged mitochondria maintains cellular homeostasis and regulates inflammation. Qian and colleagues describe a mechanism by which intracellular bacteria such as Listeria can elicit mitophagy to enable their survival.
Exhausted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) express the receptor PD-1 as a key signature. Haining and colleagues show that there are different ‘depths’ of exhaustion with a subset of exhausted CTLs that retain polyfunctionality and are responsive to PD-1 blockade.
It remains difficult to distinguish cognate APC–T cell interactions in human tissue sections. Clark and colleagues have developed an imaging–machine-learning pipeline that uses deep convolutional and tuned neural networks to identify the combination of distance and cell-shape features that can discriminate between bystander human APC–T cell interactions and cognate interactions in situ.
Stemness is crucial for the maintenance of long-term T cell memory. Gattinoni and colleagues demonstrate that the transcription factor c-Myb is essential for the establishment of a stemness program in the CD8+ T cell memory compartment.
Cross-protective responses across all strains of influenza virus (IAV, IBV and ICV) are a key goal of universal vaccines against influenza. Kedzierska and colleagues identify cytotoxic T cells present in blood and lungs of healthy people that are directed against all strains of influenza virus.
An intricately linked homeostasis exists between the gut microbiome and host immune system. Scheffold and colleagues show that intestinal Treg cells upregulate the transcription factor c-Maf in response to specific signals from the gut microenvironment to establish host–microbiota homeostasis.
Eosinophils have been described mainly in allergy settings but are increasingly appreciated as being involved in other aspects of immunity. Albert and colleagues use a clinically approved inhibitor of the dipeptidyl peptidase DPP4 to facilitate the recruitment of eosinophils to mouse tumors, where they are essential in tumor destruction.
Dendritic cells (DCs) have been suggested to express a functional NLRP3 inflammasome. Gerlic and colleagues demonstrate, however, that bone marrow–derived DCs completely lack NLRP3 inflammasome activity and that the bulk of splenic DCs lack or have only minimal activity.
Antigenic variation of influenza A viruses necessitates the annual reformulation of vaccines. Kanekiyo et al. develop a mosaic nanoparticle vaccine against influenza virus that is able to elicit neutralizing antibodies that span nearly 100 years of variation of influenza A virus.
Zinc is important for normal immunity but its mechanistic actions are poorly understood. Hambleton and colleagues identify defects in Zn2+ transport that underpin a novel human immunodeficiency characterized by loss of mature B cells.