Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
This Review from Comerford and McColl discusses recent advances that have been made in understanding the biology of the atypical chemokine receptor (ACKR) family. The authors explain how these receptors interact with their ligands to shape immune responses and also highlight potential new additions to the ACKR family.
Compared with many other vaccines, current vaccines against influenza provide only limited protection. Here, the authors describe the challenges and recent attempts at generating T cell-based vaccines. It may be important to combine T cell-based vaccines with antibody-based vaccines to provide long-lasting immunity across influenza virus strains.
An optimal immune response to influenza virus strikes a balance between protective antiviral immune mechanisms and detrimental immunopathology. Here, the authors review the immune mechanisms responsible for each side of this balance and how this may inform future vaccine design.
Here, Rongbin Zhou and colleagues review the different types of damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) that trigger sterile inflammation via pattern recognition receptors. The authors group these DAMPs on the basis of whether they arise from inside cells, from neighbouring cells or from distant tissues, and they discuss the relevance of such DAMPs in various inflammatory disease settings.
Genome editing approaches can be used to confer immune-evasive properties to allogeneic cellular immunotherapies, with the aim of achieving persistent responses and efficiencies that are comparable to those of autologous chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapies. This Perspective discusses how current knowledge about viral or tumour immune evasion could be incorporated into the design of off-the-shelf tumour-specific T and NK cells for the production of cost-effective and scalable cancer immunotherapies.
This Review discusses the mechanisms by which common alterations of cancer cell metabolism interfere with immune functions to promote immunoevasion and tumour progression, and avenues to target such alterations for therapeutic purposes.
In this Review, the authors discuss recent advances, current challenges and future prospects in exploiting both vertebrate and invertebrate immune systems for the control of flaviviral and alphaviral diseases.
Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are microbial metabolites that regulate mucosal barrier integrity and immune cell functions. This Review summarizes latest insights into how SCFA levels might determine inflammatory and allergic disease outcomes by controlling the crosstalk between diet, the microbiome and immunity.
Haematological malignancies are associated with inflammation in the bone marrow. In this Review, the authors discuss how tumour-associated inflammation affects the normal functions of the bone marrow and supports the outgrowth and survival of malignant cells. Moreover, they describe how the inflammatory changes in the bone marrow differ in myeloid and lymphoid malignancies.
This Review explains how cytokines contribute to the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The author highlights the cytokine-targeting drugs that are already being successfully used in the clinic and discusses the potential of other cytokine-modulating drugs in IBD.
In this Perspective article, Ley and colleagues explain the association between atherosclerosis and the loss of tolerance to self-proteins. They discuss why re-establishing immune tolerance could improve outcomes for patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Acute infection and other insults cause extensive remodelling in the bone marrow to drive the production of new blood cells, often prioritizing the production of mature myeloid cells at the expense of other blood cell types. Here, the authors describe how haematopoiesis is affected by acute demand and how this can contribute to inflammatory disease and cancer when dysregulated.
Immune responses to pathogens and self-antigens show sex-based differences, with female individuals generally more susceptible to autoimmunity and male individuals more vulnerable to infections. In this Review, the authors explore the role of hormones and genetics in shaping immune responses, and discuss genetic and epigenetic contributions to altered X-linked gene expression that affect immune responses.
In this Review, the authors discuss the origins of regulatory T (Treg) cells in the periphery and the mechanisms by which Treg cells are induced, as well as the regulation of the suppressive function of these cells. Moreover, they examine evidence for and mechanisms of Treg cell dysfunction in common autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.
This Review highlights new insights into the biology of inflammasomes from the perspective of structural and mechanistic studies, revealing how the supramolecular complexes that activate inflammatory caspases are assembled and regulated, to induce cytokine maturation and release, as well as pyroptotic cell death.
In this Progress article, Fooksman and colleagues review recent advances in the study of long-lived plasma cells, using genetic labelling tools, RNA sequencing and in vivo imaging to characterize the differentiation and survival of this rare cell type in mice and humans.
The first immune-targeted drug for type 1 diabetes (T1D), teplizumab, received regulatory approval by the US FDA in 2022. In this Review, Herold, Walker and colleagues examine the immune mechanisms that underpin T1D and provide an overview of immune-targeted strategies for T1D that are currently in development.
Immune cell engagers — antibody-based molecules engineered to direct immune effector cells to recognize and kill cancer cells — represent a rapidly expanding approach in cancer therapy. Here, the authors bring us up to date with the targets, challenges and opportunities for harnessing the anticancer activities of T cells, natural killer cells and myeloid cells with immune cell engagers.
This Review provides an updated assessment of the expanding family of T cell-activating bacterial superantigens, emphasizing potential roles of these toxins in various disease states as well as their contribution to the evolution of the bacterial pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes.
This Review from Wolfgang Kastenmüller and colleagues highlights the heterogeneity that exists among lymph nodes at different anatomical locations. The authors consider the factors that contribute to lymph node heterogeneity and explain the relevance of this for the immune response, particularly in the contexts of vaccination and cancer.