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Inflamed tissue has a special milieu, with hypoxia, high levels of metabolites from anaerobic glycolysis, and acidosis. Stimulation of a proton-activated receptor, TDAG8 (GPR65), in T cells has an important role in inflammatory bowel disease by balancing pro- and anti-inflammatory signals.

Extracellular acidification occurs in inflamed tissue and the tumor microenvironment; however, a systematic study on how pH sensing contributes to tissue homeostasis is lacking. In the present study, we examine cell type-specific roles of the pH sensor G protein-coupled receptor 65 (GPR65) and its inflammatory disease-associated Ile231Leu-coding variant in inflammation control. GPR65 Ile231Leu knock-in

This study shows that systemic hypoxia alters the response of the bone marrow to inflammation by reducing type I interferon signaling and suppressing the accumulation of monocyte-derived macrophages in the lung. These events, in turn, hinder the resolution of lung inflammation.

Broadly protective antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 inform vaccine improvements and are directly used for treatment and prevention. New technologies are enabling the recovery of thousands of antibody examples, and workflows to rapidly identify the most potent examples are accelerating discovery.

The emergence of current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VOCs) and potential future spillovers of SARS-like coronaviruses into humans pose a major threat to human health and the global economy. Development of broadly effective coronavirus vaccines that can mitigate these threats is needed. Here, we utilized a targeted donor selection strategy to isolate

The thymus contains a diversity of dendritic cells (DCs) that exist in defined locations and have different antigen-processing and -presenting features. This suggests that they play nonredundant roles in mediating thymocyte selection. In an effort to eliminate SIRPα+ classic DC2 subsets, we discovered that a substantial proportion expresses the surface lectin, CD301b, in the thymus. These cells resemble

Malignancy can be suppressed by the immune system. However, the classes of immunosurveillance responses and their mode of tumor sensing remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that although clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) was infiltrated by exhaustion-phenotype CD8+ T cells that negatively correlated with patient prognosis, chromophobe RCC (chRCC) had abundant infiltration of granzyme

Hypoxia alters populations of monocytes and macrophages during acute respiratory distress syndrome leading to persistent inflammation, a process that can be reversed by therapeutic administration of CSF1.

The dynamic changes in immune cell infiltration that accompany glioblastoma (GBM) progression remain obscure. Single-cell RNA sequencing and flow cytometry are now used to deconstruct the tumor immune microenvironment of early- and late-stage GBMs.

Intra-islet CD8+ T cells from a mouse model of type 1 diabetes exhibit an exhausted phenotype that differs from the canonical T cell exhaustion observed in cancer and chronic viral infection. Deletion of the inhibitory receptor LAG3 in these cells accelerated diabetes incidence and partially reversed this restrained phenotype.

Virus-specific CD8+ T cells that differentiate in the context of resolved versus persisting infections exhibit divergent phenotypic and functional characteristics, which suggests that their differentiation trajectories are governed by distinct cellular dynamics, developmental pathways and molecular mechanisms. For acute infection, it is long known that antigen-specific T cell populations contain terminally

Chronic antigen stimulation during viral infections and cancer can lead to T cell exhaustion, which is characterized by reduced effector function and proliferation, and the expression of inhibitory immune checkpoint receptors. Recent studies have demonstrated that T cell exhaustion results in wholescale epigenetic remodeling that confers phenotypic stability to these cells and prevents T cell reinvigoration

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an incurable primary malignant brain cancer hallmarked with a substantial protumorigenic immune component. Knowledge of the GBM immune microenvironment during tumor evolution and standard of care treatments is limited. Using single-cell transcriptomics and flow cytometry, we unveiled large-scale comprehensive longitudinal changes in immune cell composition throughout tumor progression

Intracellular sensing of stress and danger signals initiates inflammatory innate immune responses by triggering inflammasome assembly, caspase-1 activation and pyroptotic cell death as well as the release of interleukin 1β (IL-1β), IL-18 and danger signals. NLRP3 broadly senses infectious patterns and sterile danger signals, resulting in the tightly coordinated and regulated assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome

Hypoxemia is a defining feature of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), an often-fatal complication of pulmonary or systemic inflammation, yet the resulting tissue hypoxia, and its impact on immune responses, is often neglected. In the present study, we have shown that ARDS patients were hypoxemic and monocytopenic within the first 48 h of ventilation. Monocytopenia was also observed in mouse

Inflammasomes function as immune-signaling platforms that assemble following pathogen detection. Direct binding of a viral protein to NLRP1 and the disruption of a previously unknown autoinhibitory NRLP1 complex drive the activation of the NLRP1 inflammasome independently of the proteasome.

Ectopic expression of IL-2 in the central nervous system (CNS) is sufficient to create an organ-restricted niche for tissue-resident regulatory T cells that support re-establishment of homeostasis after multiple types of tissue injury in the CNS.

Using a gene-delivery system, we show that ectopic expression of interleukin 2 (IL-2) within reactive astrocytes stimulates brain-specific expansion of resident regulatory T cells. Such gene delivery protects against neuroinflammation in several mouse models of disease and injury, with potential implications for patients with traumatic brain injuries.

The ability of immune-modulating biologics to prevent and reverse pathology has transformed recent clinical practice. Full utility in the neuroinflammation space, however, requires identification of both effective targets for local immune modulation and a delivery system capable of crossing the blood–brain barrier. The recent identification and characterization of a small population of regulatory T

Impaired chronic viral and tumor clearance has been attributed to CD8+ T cell exhaustion, a differentiation state in which T cells have reduced and altered effector function that can be partially reversed upon blockade of inhibitory receptors. The role of the exhaustion program and transcriptional networks that control CD8+ T cell function and fate in autoimmunity is not clear. Here we show that intra-islet

At steady state, the NOD-like receptor (NLR)-containing pyrin domain (PYD) (NLRP)1 inflammasome is maintained in an auto-inhibitory complex by dipeptidyl peptidases 8 and 9 (DPP8 and DPP9) and is activated by pathogen-encoded proteases after infection. Here, we showed that the open reading frame (ORF)45 protein of the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus activated the human NLRP1 (hNLRP1) inflammasome

Basophils are type 2 immune response cells, but they have also been associated with fibrosis. New data indicate that proximal tubule cells exert profibrotic effects by recruiting IL-6-producing basophils into the kidneys.

Inflammation is an important component of fibrosis but immune processes that orchestrate kidney fibrosis are not well understood. Here we apply single-cell sequencing to a mouse model of kidney fibrosis. We identify a subset of kidney tubule cells with a profibrotic-inflammatory phenotype characterized by the expression of cytokines and chemokines associated with immune cell recruitment. Receptor–ligand

Switching the CD4 and CD8 coreceptor proteins encoded in Cd4 and Cd8 loci results in a reversed T cell immune system, with CD4+ cytotoxic T cells and CD8+ helper T cells. Thus, whichever coreceptor is encoded in Cd4 promotes a helper lineage fate, and whichever is encoded in Cd8 promotes a cytotoxic lineage fate.

As the effectiveness of a two-dose messenger RNA (mRNA) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine regimen decreases with time, a third dose has been recommended. Here, we assessed immunogenicity, vaccine effectiveness and safety of the third BNT162b2 vaccine dose in a prospective cohort study of 12,413 healthcare workers (HCWs). Anti-RBD immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels were

The activation of the noncanonical NLRP3 inflammasome can be elicited by the interaction and interdependent activation of caspase-11 and NLRP3 that follows coincident cytosolic detection of lipopolysaccharide and bacterial mRNA from live Gram-negative bacteria.

Type I innate lymphoid cells (ILC1s) are critical regulators of inflammation and immunity in mammalian tissues. However, their function in cancer is mostly undefined. Here, we show that a high density of ILC1s induces leukemia stem cell (LSC) apoptosis in mice. At a lower density, ILC1s prevent LSCs from differentiating into leukemia progenitors and promote their differentiation into non-leukemic cells

The T cell-specific DNA-binding protein TCF-1 is a central regulator of T cell development and function along multiple stages and lineages. Because it interacts with β-catenin, TCF-1 has been classically viewed as a downstream effector of canonical Wnt signaling, although there is strong evidence for β-catenin-independent TCF-1 functions. TCF-1 co-binds accessible regulatory regions containing or lacking

Caspase-11 detection of intracellular lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from invasive Gram-negative bacteria mediates noncanonical activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. While avirulent bacteria do not invade the cytosol, their presence in tissues necessitates clearance and immune system mobilization. Despite sharing LPS, only live avirulent Gram-negative bacteria activate the NLRP3 inflammasome. Here, we found

A role for mitochondrial ATP that leads to phosphocreatine and the subsequent generation of cytosolic ATP via creatine kinase B is now proposed in the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

Here we report the identification of human CD66b−CD64dimCD115− neutrophil-committed progenitor cells (NCPs) within the SSCloCD45dimCD34+ and CD34dim/− subsets in the bone marrow. NCPs were either CD45RA+ or CD45RA−, and in vitro experiments showed that CD45RA acquisition was not mandatory for their maturation process. NCPs exclusively generated human CD66b+ neutrophils in both in vitro differentiation

The NLRP3 inflammasome is linked to sterile and pathogen-dependent inflammation, and its dysregulation underlies many chronic diseases. Mitochondria have been implicated as regulators of the NLRP3 inflammasome through several mechanisms including generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here, we report that mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) complex I, II, III and V inhibitors

T cell specificity and function are linked during development, as MHC-II-specific TCR signals generate CD4 helper T cells and MHC-I-specific TCR signals generate CD8 cytotoxic T cells, but the basis remains uncertain. We now report that switching coreceptor proteins encoded by Cd4 and Cd8 gene loci functionally reverses the T cell immune system, generating CD4 cytotoxic and CD8 helper T cells. Such

LAG3 interferes with TCR signaling by lowering the pH in the vicinity of the TCR and inducing dissociation of the key signaling kinase Lck from the co-receptors CD8 and CD4.

Thomas and colleagues describe how multiple mRNA vaccine boosters, with or without natural SARS-CoV-2 infection, shape T cell immunity.

A genetic recorder of T cell replicative history identifies fewer accumulated divisions in a subset of CD8+ central memory T cells that shows stem-cell-like quiescence and superior recall capacity.

Regulatory T (Treg) cells require (interleukin-2) IL-2 for their homeostasis by affecting their proliferation, survival and activation. Here we investigated transcriptional and epigenetic changes after acute, periodic and persistent IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) signaling in mouse peripheral Treg cells in vivo using IL-2 or the long-acting IL-2-based biologic mouse IL-2–CD25. We show that initially IL-2R-dependent

Phenotypic and transcriptional profiling of regulatory T (Treg) cells at homeostasis reveals that T cell receptor activation promotes Treg cells with an effector phenotype (eTreg) characterized by the production of interleukin-10 and expression of the inhibitory receptor PD-1. At homeostasis, blockade of the PD-1 pathway results in enhanced eTreg cell activity, whereas during infection with Toxoplasma gondii

LAG3 is an inhibitory receptor that is highly expressed on exhausted T cells. Although LAG3-targeting immunotherapeutics are currently in clinical trials, how LAG3 inhibits T cell function remains unclear. Here, we show that LAG3 moved to the immunological synapse and associated with the T cell receptor (TCR)-CD3 complex in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, in the absence of binding to major histocompatibility

Clonal expansion is a core aspect of T cell immunity. However, little is known with respect to the relationship between replicative history and the formation of distinct CD8+ memory T cell subgroups. To address this issue, we developed a genetic-tracing approach, termed the DivisionRecorder, that reports the extent of past proliferation of cell pools in vivo. Using this system to genetically ‘record’

A new genetic ‘recorder’ of long-term cell proliferation revealed substantial heterogeneity in the division history of central memory CD8+ T cells. Importantly, the extent of past proliferation was related to distinct transcriptional features and re-expansion potential, highlighting an unappreciated division of labor within the central memory T cell pool.

Although mRNA vaccine efficacy against severe coronavirus disease 2019 remains high, variant emergence has prompted booster immunizations. However, the effects of repeated exposures to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigens on memory T cells are poorly understood. Here, we utilize major histocompatibility complex multimers with single-cell RNA sequencing to profile S