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Knapp and colleagues show that elevated heme levels following hemolysis impair the control of bacterial proliferation by inhibiting phagocytosis and migration of human and mouse phagocytes independently of heme-iron acquisition by bacteria as a source of nutrients.
T follicular helper (TFH) cells are important for the formation of germinal centers and antibody responses. Kubo and colleagues show that TH1 cells can induce a protective antibody response in the complete absence of TFH cells and germinal centers.
Boztug and colleagues identify an immunodeficient patient with a deficiency in the guanine-nucleotide-exchange factor RASGRP1. They find that human RASGRP1 is important for the function of T cells, B cells and NK cells and that it has a role in the regulation of the cytoskeleton.
Microglia are CNS-resident macrophages, but studying their functions in health and disease has been challenging due to a lack of specific markers. Greter and colleagues identify the transcription factor Sall1 as being uniquely associated with microglia in the CNS, where it is important for defining their fate and homeostatic function.
A goal of vaccination is to elicit and maintain tissue-resident memory T cells. Amsen and colleagues show human lung-resident memory CD8+ T cells express distinct transcriptional programs, including a role for Notch in cellular metabolism and maintenance.
Gao and colleagues show that the T cell anergy–related E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF128 is a positive regulator of TBK1 activation and interferon-β production.
Type 2 responses can be elicited by ILC2s and TH2 cells. Locksley and colleagues show that the epithelium-derived cytokines IL-25, IL-33 and TSLP are required for full effector activation of poised ILC2 and primed TH2 cell populations.
Cerebral malaria infection can provoke fatal neuroinflammation. Gros and colleagues identify an ubiquitin-modification axis that exacerbates neuroinflammation and that involves TRIM25 and USP15, which jointly promote type I interferon production.
T cells undergo metabolic reprogramming after they are activated. Rathmell and colleagues show that inflammatory Toll-like receptor signals induce glycolysis and impair the suppression of regulatory T cells, but Foxp3 can promote a switch to oxidative phosphorylation and suppression.
The identity and lineage potential of the embryonic thymus-seeding progenitors that first seed the embryonic thymic rudiment is unclear. Jacobsen and colleagues find that these cells do not include multipotent stem cells or T cell–restricted progenitors but instead are lympho-myeloid progenitors.
Alveolar macrophages help maintain lung-tissue homeostasis despite constant microbial exposure. Zhang and colleagues show that the E3 ligase TRIM29 suppresses excessive proinflammatory responses by targeting the adaptor NEMO in alveolar macrophages.
Follicular regulatory T cells (TFR cells) inhibit follicular helper T cell (TFH cell)-mediated antibody production. Sharpe and colleagues show that TFR cells induce a distinct suppressive state in TFH cells and B cells that can be reversed by the cytokine IL-21.
The CD4-versus-CD8 lineage ‘choice’ is a critical stage of thymocyte development. Singer and colleagues reveal that CD8 positive selection occurs in a defined time window and involves a compensatory mechanism that dynamically adjusts to TCR and cytokine signals.
Cybulsky and colleagues show that myeloid cells in the arterial intima undergo reverse transendothelial migration into the arterial circulation that is dependent on the chemokine CCL19 and its receptor CCR7.
The longevity of hematopoietic stem cells requires strict regulation to prevent their exhaustion. Aifantis and colleagues show that the ubiquitin E3 ligase Huwe1 is needed to suppress the activity of the transcription factor N-myc and maintain the quiescence and function of these cells.
Godfrey, Pellicci and colleagues define the developmental stages and checkpoints for the development of mucosal-associated invariant T cells in humans and mice.
Gliomas recruit and manipulate microglial function to promote their growth. Joseph and colleagues reveal the molecular basis of this manipulation by showing that gliomas trigger S-nitrosylation of microglial caspase-3 and thereby initiate a tumor-promoting phenotype.
The importance of human innate lymphoid cells to normal human physiology is unclear. Vivier and colleagues find that immunodeficient patients ‘rescued’ with normal bone marrow can recover their T cells but not their innate lymphoid cells, yet remain entirely asymptomatic for nearly 40 years.
The cytokine receptor IL-2R is essential for the development of Treg cells; therefore, it has been difficult to separate this from its role in the suppressive function of Treg cells. Rudensky and colleagues use various genetic systems to show that capture of IL-2 by IL-2R is important for suppression of CD8+ T cells but not that of CD4+ T cells.
tRNA synthetases are essential to protein synthesis. Kim and colleagues identify a non-translational function for glutamyl-prolyl-tRNA synthetase during viral infection that promotes the anti-viral activity of the antiviral signaling protein MAVS.