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Recent studies have revealed a specialized population of ‘exhausted’ CD8+ T cells that expands on immune checkpoint blockade therapy for cancer and may explain how T cell responses are maintained in chronic conditions. Here, the authors describe their phenotypic, developmental and functional characteristics and why they should be harnessed for successful immunotherapy.
B cells have many unique metabolic features. Markus Müschen highlights these in this Opinion article and proposes the concept of three key metabolic gatekeepers that protect against B cell-associated autoimmunity and lymphomas.
Emerging data indicate that neutrophils exist in several different ‘flavours’. Here, the authors outline potential underlying mechanisms for the presence of distinct neutrophil subsets in health and disease.
This Opinion article summarizes current models of thinking about multi-locus antigenic diversity of pathogens. The authors describe five hypotheses to explain how host immunity selects for antigenic diversity at the level of the pathogen population.
Can macrophages derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) be used to effectively model in vivo tissue macrophages? Here, the authors consider the pros and cons of the different protocols for generating macrophages from iPSCs and suggest that a two-step model, based on ontogeny and tissue-specific microenvironment, enables the generation of biologically relevant macrophages.
Most candidate vaccines for tuberculosis are designed to boost cell-mediated immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the intracellular bacterium that causes the disease. This Opinion article considers the rationale for also harnessing antibody-mediated immunity in future tuberculosis vaccines.
This Timeline looks back at the past 60 years of fundamental research into the mechanisms of T cell-mediated cytotoxicity, which has culminated in recent interest in the therapeutic manipulation of cytotoxic T cell responses for cancer immunotherapy.
In this Timeline, Allan Mowat reflects on some of the key discoveries that have shaped our understanding of how immune tolerance towards environmental antigens, such as commensal bacteria and food proteins, develops and is maintained in the intestine.
