Tag: Adaptive Immunity

The road not taken en route to T cell exhaustion

The first detailed investigation of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating T cell differentiation in the hours after cells enter a tumor has yielded an unexpected twist. Naive T cells veer away from effector fate and enter the path towards exhaustion much earlier than expected. Rudloff et al.3 used mice with advanced liver cancers induced by the expression of… Continue reading The road not taken en route to T cell exhaustion

Alt-RNAtive vaccines elicit anti-malarial TRM cells

Malaria is a vector-borne disease caused by Plasmodium parasites. In an exciting new study, Ganley et al. harness the power of mRNA vaccines to summon tissue-resident memory T cells to battle the parasite as it replicates in the liver. Malaria is a vector-borne disease caused by Plasmodium parasites. As an infected female Anopheles mosquito takes… Continue reading Alt-RNAtive vaccines elicit anti-malarial TRM cells

TWiV 1034: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin

In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses the immunogenicity, safety, and preliminary efficacy evaluation of OVX836, a nucleoprotein-based universal influenza A vaccine candidate, association between nose picking and SARS-CoV-2 incidence, a cohort study in hospital health care workers; effect of COVID-19 vaccination and booster on maternal-fetal outcomes, dynamics of inflammatory responses after SARS-CoV-2 infection… Continue reading TWiV 1034: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin

Using the body’s ‘invisible scalpel’ to remove brain cancer

Scientists discovered that anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy extended the lives of mice with glioblastoma by causing specialized CD4+ T immune cells to 1) infiltrate the brain and 2) tell brain-resident immune cells called microglia to destroy tumor cells. Their findings show the benefit of harnessing the body’s own immune cells to fight brain cancer and could lead… Continue reading Using the body’s ‘invisible scalpel’ to remove brain cancer

Elevated binding and functional antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in infants versus mothers

Abstract Infant antibody responses to viral infection can differ from those in adults. However, data on the specificity and function of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies in infants, and direct comparisons between infants and adults are limited. Here, we characterize antibody binding and functionality against Wuhan-Hu-1 (B lineage) strain SARS-CoV-2 in convalescent… Continue reading Elevated binding and functional antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in infants versus mothers

Loss of CD4+ T cell-intrinsic arginase 1 accelerates Th1 response kinetics and reduces lung pathology during influenza infection

West et al. demonstrate that CD4+ T cell-intrinsic arginase 1 paces the transition of Th1 cells from their induction to their contraction program via balancing glutamine vs. arginine usage. They further show that Th1 cells lacking arginase 1 retain full pathogen clearance capacity but cause less Th1-associated tissue pathology.

CTLA-4 blockade induces CD4+ T cell IFNγ-driven microglial phagocytosis and anti-tumor function in glioblastoma

Immunotherapies against glioblastoma exhibit limited efficacy. Chen et al. examine the impact of immunotherapy in mesenchymal glioblastomas and find that αCTLA-4 treatment promotes tumor suppression in a manner dependent on CD4+ T cells. Mechanistically, microglia serve as essential MHC-II antigen-presenting cells that sustain anti-tumor IFNγ+ CD4+ T cells, which in turn stimulate microglial phagocytic function via AXL-MER signaling.

Study provides clues to how harmful T cells cause heart disease

Scientists can finally hunt down a harmful kind of human T cell, thanks to new research led by scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) at Augusta University. Immune cells called ex-T regulatory cells (exTregs) tend to be rare in the body and, so far, impossible to… Continue reading Study provides clues to how harmful T cells cause heart disease