Contents
December 2020
Vol 5, Issue 54
Vol 5, Issue 54
First Release: Research Article
- Defining the features and duration of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with disease severity and outcome
Illness severity in COVID-19 correlates with specificity of serological responses, but antibody levels decrease in most patients.
Focus
- Lighting a fire on the reef
In response to infection in corals, activated caspase-3 cleaves gasdermin E to induce pyroptosis (see the related Research Article by Jiang et al.).
Research Articles
- Enhanced IL-36R signaling promotes barrier impairment and inflammation in skin and intestine
Unrestrained IL-36R signaling in a humanized mouse model causes barrier impairment and increased cutaneous and intestinal inflammation.
- Autophagy protects tumors from T cell–mediated cytotoxicity via inhibition of TNFα-induced apoptosis
Autophagy reduces tumor cell sensitivity to T cell killing; thus, inhibiting autophagy may improve T cell–engaging therapies.
- Defects in LC3B2 and ATG4A underlie HSV2 meningitis and reveal a critical role for autophagy in antiviral defense in humans
Autophagy defects predispose to recurrent HSV2 meningitis and reveal an important role for autophagy in antiviral immunity.
- CD4+ T cell activation and concomitant mTOR metabolic inhibition can ablate microbiota-specific memory cells and prevent colitis
Activation by multi-epitope peptide plus mTOR inhibition depletes flagellin-reactive CD4+ T cells and prevents intestinal inflammation.
- Coral gasdermin triggers pyroptosis
Coral gasdermin is activated by caspase 3 and involved in pathogen-induced coral death.
- BATF regulates innate lymphoid cell hematopoiesis and homeostasis
Batf supports differentiation of ILC progenitors and optimal population of NK, ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 in peripheral tissues.
Erratum
Editors' Choice
- B careful: Humoral responses and COVID-19 severity
Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2, though often of limited longevity, have generally been assumed to be protective against COVID-19 disease.
- A cytokine to remember me by
Cohesin restrains cytokine-induced transcriptional memory.
About The Cover
ONLINE COVER Coral Calamity. This month's cover is an underwater photograph showing a bleached stony coral (genus Pocillopora) on a reef near American Samoa. Bleaching occurs in stressed coral and is associated with environmental perturbations, including increased ocean temperature. Pathogenic bacteria such as Vibrio coralliilyticus contribute to coral damage associated with ocean warming. Jiang et al. identified gene sequences in several coral species with homology to gasdermin E, a vertebrate pore-forming protein involved in cell death by pyroptosis. They found that coral gasdermin E cleavage after bacterial infection requires caspase-3 and liberates an N-terminal domain capable of inducing pyroptotic cell death. [CREDIT: ISTOCK.COM/DAMOCEAN]
