{"title":"Mechanoregulation of lymphocyte cytotoxicity","authors":"Morgan Huse","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01173-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01173-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Cytotoxic lymphocytes counter intracellular pathogens and cancer by recognizing and destroying infected or transformed target cells. The basis for their function is the cytolytic immune synapse, a structurally stereotyped cell–cell interface through which lymphocytes deliver toxic proteins to target cells. The immune synapse is a highly dynamic contact capable of exerting nanonewton-scale forces against the target cell. In recent years, it has become clear that the interplay between these forces and the biophysical properties of the target influences the entirety of the cytotoxic response, from the initial activation of cytotoxic lymphocytes to the release of dying target cells. As a result, cellular cytotoxicity has become an exemplar of the ways in which biomechanics can regulate immune cell activation and effector function. This Review covers recent progress in this area, which has prompted a reconsideration of target cell killing from a more mechanobiological perspective.</p>","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143893494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lisa Schmidleithner, Philipp Stüve, Markus Feuerer
{"title":"Transposable elements as instructors of the immune system","authors":"Lisa Schmidleithner, Philipp Stüve, Markus Feuerer","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01172-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01172-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile repetitive nucleic acid sequences that have been incorporated into the genome through spontaneous integration, accounting for almost 50% of human DNA. Even though most TEs are no longer mobile today, studies have demonstrated that they have important roles in different biological processes, such as ageing, embryonic development, and cancer. TEs influence these processes through various mechanisms, including active transposition of TEs contributing to ongoing evolution, transposon transcription generating RNA or protein, and by influencing gene regulation as enhancers. However, how TEs interact with the immune system remains a largely unexplored field. In this Perspective, we describe how TEs might influence different aspects of the immune system, such as innate immune responses, T cell activation and differentiation, and tissue adaptation. Furthermore, TEs can serve as a source of neoantigens for T cells in antitumour immunity. We suggest that TE biology is an important emerging field of immunology and discuss the potential to harness the TE network therapeutically, for example, to improve immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"488 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143884827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cytokines target distinct brain areas to modulate behavioural responses","authors":"Yvonne Bordon","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01179-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01179-w","url":null,"abstract":"Two new studies describe populations of neurons in distinct brain regions that respond to IL-17 family cytokines and IL-10 to regulate social and anxiety-like behaviours.","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143884902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Microglia in the periphery","authors":"Lucy Bird","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01180-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01180-3","url":null,"abstract":"Microglia are not confined to the central nervous system but are also present in the periphery, wrapped around large neuronal somas of humans and larger animals but not small animals like mice.","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143880596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neonatal antibiotics impair infant vaccine responses","authors":"Kirsty Minton","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01176-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01176-z","url":null,"abstract":"A prospective observational study of human immune responses to vaccination after early-life antibiotic exposure shows that neonatal exposure reduces the immune response to several vaccine antigens and results in more rapid waning of protection.","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143862386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vaccination in pregnancy to protect the newborn","authors":"Victoria Male, Christine E. Jones","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01162-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01162-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Infectious diseases pose a particular risk to newborns and there is a global need to protect this vulnerable group. Because of the challenges of developing vaccines that are effective in newborns, only the hepatitis B and tuberculosis vaccines are given in the first 28 days of life, and even those vaccines are mainly only offered to high-risk groups. Maternal antibodies cross the placenta and can afford some protection to the newborn, so an alternative strategy is vaccination in pregnancy. This approach has been successfully used to protect newborns against tetanus and pertussis, and vaccines that are primarily offered to protect the mother during pregnancy, such as influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, also provide some protection to newborns. A respiratory syncytial virus vaccine has recently been approved for use in pregnancy to protect newborns, and a new vaccine that will be offered during pregnancy to prevent Group B Streptococcus infection in infants is on the horizon. Here, we discuss the current vaccines that are offered during pregnancy and to newborns, the vaccines in development for future use in these groups and the challenges that remain concerning the delivery and uptake of such vaccines.</p>","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143862387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CDKN2Alow tumours mediate immunotherapy resistance by depriving macrophages of zinc","authors":"Robbie Jin, Tracy L. McGaha","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01178-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01178-x","url":null,"abstract":"A preprint by Buj et al. reports that Cdkn2alow tumour cells upregulate plasma membrane expression of the zinc importer SLC39A9, which deprives macrophages of zinc and impairs their phagocytic capacity, driving immunotherapy resistance.","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143862385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monocytes rule energy metabolism with an iron fist","authors":"Felix Clemens Richter, Kelsey Voss","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01177-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01177-y","url":null,"abstract":"A preprint by Martins, Blankehaus et al. highlights an important role for monocyte-derived macrophages in iron homeostasis and its control of systemic energy metabolism.","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143862384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Samantha Tse-Kang, Khursheed A. Wani, Read Pukkila-Worley
{"title":"Patterns of pathogenesis in innate immunity: insights from C. elegans","authors":"Samantha Tse-Kang, Khursheed A. Wani, Read Pukkila-Worley","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01167-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01167-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The cells in barrier tissues can distinguish pathogenic from commensal bacteria and target inflammatory responses only in the context of infection. As such, these cells must be able to identify pathogen infection specifically and not just the presence of an infectious organism, because many innocuous bacteria express the ligands that activate innate immunity in other contexts. Unravelling the mechanisms that underly this specificity, however, is challenging. Free-living nematodes, such as <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>, are faced with a similar dilemma, as they live in microorganism-rich habitats and eat bacteria as their source of nutrition. Nematodes lost canonical mechanisms of pattern recognition during their evolution and have instead evolved mechanisms to identify specific ligands or symptoms in the host that indicate active infection with an infectious microorganism. Here we review how <i>C. elegans</i> surveys for these patterns of pathogenesis to activate innate immune defences. Collectively, this work demonstrates that using <i>C. elegans</i> as an experimental platform to study host–pathogen interactions at barrier surfaces reveals primordial and fundamentally important principles of innate immune sensing in the animal branch of the tree of life.</p>","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143841321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The immunology of asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis","authors":"Atsushi Kato, Hirohito Kita","doi":"10.1038/s41577-025-01159-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01159-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) are common chronic inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract that have increased in prevalence over the past five decades. The clinical relationship between asthma and CRS has been well recognized, suggesting a common pathogenesis between these diseases. Both diseases are driven by complex airway epithelial cell and immune cell interactions that occur in response to environmental triggers such as allergens, microorganisms and irritants. Advances, including a growing understanding of the biology of the cells involved in the disease, the application of multiomics technologies and the performance of large-scale clinical studies, have led to a better understanding of the pathophysiology and heterogeneity of asthma and CRS. This research has promoted the concept that these diseases consist of several endotypes, in which airway epithelial cells, innate lymphoid cells, T cells, B cells, granulocytes and their mediators are distinctly involved in the immunopathology. Identification of the disease heterogeneity and immunological markers has also greatly improved the protocols for biologic therapies and the clinical outcomes in certain subsets of patients. However, many clinical and research questions remain. In this Review, we discuss recent advances in characterizing the immunological mechanisms of asthma and CRS, with a focus on the main cell types and molecules involved in these diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":19049,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Immunology","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":100.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143841442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}