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  • Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells directed at fibroblast activation protein show efficacy in mouse models of hypertensive cardiac injury and fibrosis.

    • Sarah Crunkhorn
    Research Highlight
  • Antibiotics can impair the development of immunity against seasonal influenza virus in individuals with low levels of pre-existing immune memory.

    • Yvonne Bordon
    Research Highlight
  • Commensal bacteria at mucosal surfaces can remotely control the thymic maturation of mucosal-associated invariant T cells through the production of microbial factors that enter the circulation and are taken up by thymic cells.

    • Kirsty Minton
    Research Highlight
  • A new study shows that monocytes, recruited to the lungs during an infection, sense alterations in physical forces and pressure and initiate a pro-inflammatory response. This environmental sensory axis is mediated by the mechanically activated calcium channel PIEZO1.

    • Lucy Bird
    Research Highlight
  • Fasting can modulate immune responses in the context of infection, inflammatory disease and cancer.

    • Yvonne Bordon
    Research Highlight
  • Prue Hart describes a 1983 paper by De Fabo and Noonan that identified urocanic acid as a major photoreceptor for ultraviolet radiation in the skin that induces systemic immunosuppression.

    • Prue H. Hart
    Journal Club
  • The angiogenic growth factor placental growth factor is produced by TH17 cells and induces TH17 cell differentiation, which suggests a positive feedback loop between angiogenesis and autoimmunity in chronically inflamed tissues.

    • Kirsty Minton
    Research Highlight
  • Class-switch recombination was thought to take place in B cells that enter germinal centres, but this study shows that it actually occurs earlier than previously thought.

    • Alexandra Flemming
    Research Highlight
  • Targeting metabolism via mTOR restores suppressor functions in FOXP3-deficient regulatory T cells.

    • Yvonne Bordon
    Research Highlight
  • Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that secrete bispecific T cell engagers (BiTEs) show promise for the treatment of glioblastoma in mouse models.

    • Alexandra Flemming
    Research Highlight
  • Stimulation of cutaneous TRPV1+ neurons is sufficient to induce a type 17 inflammatory response that spreads to surrounding skin areas to provide ‘anticipatory’ host defence against fungal infection.

    • Kirsty Minton
    Research Highlight
  • Metabolites associated with the maternal or neonatal microbiota can shape regulatory T cell development in early life, thereby affecting the susceptibility of infants to allergy.

    • Yvonne Bordon
    Research Highlight
  • Researchers have identified a subset of T helper cells that is found predominantly in individuals with multiple sclerosis. The subset is defined by expression of GM-CSF and CXCR4 and may be important in disease pathology.

    • Lucy Bird
    Research Highlight
  • Leukaemia stem cells seem to evade immune surveillance by repressing the expression of stress-induced activating natural killer (NK) cell ligands. Overriding this repression with inhibitors renders them amenable to control by NK cells and prevents leukaemogenesis.

    • Lucy Bird
    Research Highlight
  • Cytosolic protein oligomers formed by certain innate immune receptors and their adaptor proteins trigger the integrated stress response pathway, which regulates the stability of these signalosomes as well as downstream inflammatory responses.

    • Kirsty Minton
    Research Highlight
  • A new study shows that neutrophils collaborate with tumour-associated macrophages and unconventional innate-like T cells to mount type 1 antitumour immunity.

    • Lucy Bird
    Research Highlight
  • This study demonstrates that TREM1, an amplifier of inflammation, is induced on peripheral myeloid cells in response to stroke and uncovers an intriguing connection between the brain, the gut and the immune system.

    • Alexandra Flemming
    Research Highlight
  • Six studies describe a role for TOX in promoting an ‘exhausted’ CD8+ T cell phenotype in settings of chronic antigenic stimulation, such as persistent viral infections and cancer.

    • Yvonne Bordon
    Research Highlight
  • Levels of CCR5 expression by CD4+ T cells, which influence the outcome of HIV-1 infection, are modulated by polymorphism of a non-coding RNA that affects mRNA stability.

    • Kirsty Minton
    Research Highlight