Immunology

A humoral immune response to parasitoid wasps in Drosophila is regulated by JAK/STAT, NF-κB and GATA

1. Shuyu Olivia Zhou
2. Jonathan P Day
3. Bart Deplancke
4. Alexandre B Leitão
5. Francis M Jiggins

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study reports an extensive analysis of the way a humoral immune response to parasitoid wasp is expressed and regulated, building on previous work from the authors on an anti-parasitoid effector lectin. The solid evidence uses two complementary approaches to show which innate immune pathways are involved in the regulation of the anti-parasitoid response. The evidence would be stronger if some analytical and related concerns can be addressed. The work will be of relevance to the community of investigators studying insect immune cells as well as researchers interested in host defense against parasitism.

Reviewed by eLife

Use of equine H3N8 hemagglutinin as a broadly protective influenza vaccine immunogen

1. David Verhoeven
2. Brett A. Sponseller
3. James E. Crowe
4. Sandhya Bangaru
5. Richard J. Webby
6. Brian Lee

Reviewed by PREreview

Human airway macrophages are metabolically reprogrammed by IFN-γ resulting in glycolysis dependent functional plasticity

1. Donal J Cox
2. Sarah A Connolly
3. Cilian Ó Maoldomhnaigh
4. Aenea AI Brugman
5. Olivia Sandby Thomas
6. Emily Duffin
7. Karl M Gogan
8. Oisin Ó Gallchobhair
9. Dearbhla M Murphy
10. Sinead A O’Rourke
11. Finbarr O’Connell
12. Parthiban Nadarajan
13. James J Phelan
14. Laura E Gleeson
15. Sharee A Basdeo
16. Joseph Keane

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this valuable study, the authors investigate how inflammatory priming and exposure to irradiated Mycobacterium tuberculosis or the bacterial endotoxin LPS impact the metabolism of primary human airway macrophages and monocyte-derived macrophages. The work shows that metabolic plasticity is greater in monocyte-derived macrophages than alveolar macrophages, with solid experimental methods and overall evidence. The findings are relevant to the field of immunometabolism.

Reviewed by eLife

Monoclonal antibodies derived from B cells in subjects with cystic fibrosis reduce Pseudomonas aeruginosa burden in mice

1. Malika Hale
2. Kennidy K. Takehara
3. Christopher D. Thouvenel
4. Dina A. Moustafa
5. Andrea Repele
6. Mary F. Fontana
7. Jason Netland
8. Sharon McNamara
9. Ronald L. Gibson
10. Joanna B. Goldberg
11. David J. Rawlings
12. Marion Pepper

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Treatment of pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is challenging because of intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance to most antibiotic drug classes. Therefore, by using donor B cells in subjects with cystic fibrosis who undergo intermittent or chronic airway PA infections, the authors tried to isolate BCRs against PA virulence factors and examine their biological activities. The data are solid and isolated protective antibodies could be useful for protection against PA.

Reviewed by eLife

Sex-dependent gastrointestinal colonization resistance to MRSA is microbiome and Th17 dependent

1. Alannah Lejeune
2. Chunyi Zhou
3. Defne Ercelen
4. Gregory Putzel
5. Xiaomin Yao
6. Alyson R Guy
7. Miranda Pawline
8. Magdalena Podkowik
9. Alejandro Pironti
10. Victor J Torres
11. Bo Shopsin
12. Ken Cadwell

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study demonstrates a mechanism underlying the sex-dependent regulation of the susceptibility to gut colonization by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The evidence supporting the conclusion is solid, but additional experiments would strengthen the findings. The work will interest biologists who are working on intestinal infection and immunity.

Reviewed by eLife

Ly6G+Granulocytes-derived IL-17 limits protective host responses and promotes tuberculosis pathogenesis

1. Priya Sharma
2. Raman Deep Sharma
3. Mrinmoy Das
4. Binayak Sarkar
5. Lakshyaveer Singh
6. Neharika Jain
7. Shivam Chaturvedi
8. Lalita Mehra
9. Aditya Rathee
10. Shilpa Sharma
11. Shihui Foo
12. Andrea Lee
13. N Pavan kumar
14. Prasenjit Das
15. Vijay Viswanathan
16. Hardy Kornfeld
17. Shanshan W Howland
18. Subash Babu
19. Vinay Nandicoori
20. Amit Singhal
21. Dhiraj Kumar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This potentially valuable study examines the role of IL17-producing Ly6G PMNs as a reservoir for Mycobacterium tuberculosis to evade host killing activated by BCG immunisation. The authors report that IL17-producing polymorphonuclear neutrophils harbour a significant bacterial load in both wild-type and IFNg-/- mice and that targeting IL17 and Cox2 improved disease outcomes whilst enhancing BCG efficacy. Although the authors suggest that targeting these pathways may improve disease outcomes in humans, the evidence as it stands is incomplete and requires additional experimentation for the study to realise its full impact.

Reviewed by eLife

Phase transition of WTAP regulates m6A modification of interferon-stimulated genes

1. Sihui Cai
2. Jie Zhou
3. Xiaotong Luo
4. Chenqiu Zhang
5. Shouheng Jin
6. Jian Ren
7. Jun Cui

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study demonstrates that interferon beta stimulation induces WTAP transition from aggregates to liquid droplets, coordinating m6A modification of a subset of mRNAs that encode interferon-stimulated genes and restricting their expression. The evidence presented is solid, supported by microscopy, immunoprecipitations, m6A sequencing, and ChIP, to show that WTAP phosphorylation controls phase transition and its interaction with STAT1 and the methyltransferase complex.

Reviewed by eLife

Expression of a single inhibitory Ly49 receptor is sufficient to license NK cells for effector functions

1. Sytse J Piersma
2. Shasha Li
3. Pamela Wong
4. Michael D Bern
5. Jennifer Poursine-Laurent
6. Liping Yang
7. Diana L Beckman
8. Bijal A Parikh
9. Wayne M Yokoyama

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study presents compelling evidence that a single member of the Ly49 gene family (Ly49a) provides sufficient inhibitory signaling to license NK cell activity when its H-2Dd ligand is present. There is also convincing evidence of the effect of Ly49a expression on in vitro killing and IFNgamma production. The use of the authors' system to investigate additional Ly49 receptors, such as Ly49c/i on the H2b background, could provide information on their relative contribution to NK cell licensing. Improvements to the presentation with respect to figure clarity and terminology would allow a better understanding of this complex system by non-experts.

Reviewed by eLife

Unraveling the Role of Ctla-4 in Intestinal Immune Homeostasis: Insights from a novel Zebrafish Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

1. Lulu Qin
2. Chongbin Hu
3. Qiong Zhao
4. Yong Wang
5. Dongdong Fan
6. Aifu Lin
7. Lixin Xiang
8. Ye Chen
9. Jianzhong Shao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study focuses on the role of a T-cell-specific receptor, ctla-4, in a new zebrafish model of IBD-like phenotype. Although implicated in IBD diseases, the function of ctla-4 has been hard to study in mice as the KO is lethal. Ctla-4 mutant zebrafish exhibited significant intestinal inflammation and dysbiosis, mirroring the pathology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in mammals, providing a new valuable model to the field of IBD research. However, although many of the results are solid, the methods as provided are incomplete, without information on methods for many data panels.

Reviewed by eLife

A novel bioinformatics pipeline for the identification of immune inhibitory receptors as potential therapeutic targets

1. Akashdip Singh
2. Alberto Miranda Bedate
3. Helen J von Richthofen
4. Saskia V Vijver
5. Michiel van der Vlist
6. Raphael Kuhn
7. Alexander Yermanos
8. Jürgen J Kuball
9. Can Kesmir
10. M Ines Pascoal Ramos
11. Linde Meyaard

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors presented a valuable bioinformatics pipeline for screening and identifying inhibitory receptors for potential drug targets. They provided solid evidence showing a sequential reduction in the search space through various screening tools and algorithms and demonstrated that this pipeline can be used to "rediscover" known targets. Further experimental validation on putative and unknown inhibitory receptors will strengthen the evidence reported in this work. This study will be of interest to bioinformaticians and computational biologists working on immune regulation, sequence screening, and target identification of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Reviewed by eLife