Human Immunology News Volume 5.24 | Jun 20 2017

TOP STORY

Eye-Opening Picture of Fetal Immune System Emerges

A human fetus in its second trimester is extraordinarily busy. It is developing skin and bones, the ability to hear and swallow, and working on its first bowel movement. Researchers have found that fetuses are also acquiring a functioning immune system — one that can recognize foreign proteins, but is less inclined than a mature immune system to go on the attack. [Editorial from Nature News discussing online prepublication in Nature] Editorial | Abstract

(Ranked by impact factor of the journal)

Germline Hypomorphic CARD11 Mutations in Severe Atopic Disease

Transfection of mutant CARD11 expression constructs into T cell lines demonstrated both loss-of-function and dominant-interfering activity upon antigen receptor–induced activation of nuclear factor-κB and mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1. [Nat Genet] Abstract | Press Release

Landscape of Infiltrating T Cells in Liver Cancer Revealed by Single-Cell Sequencing

The authors performed deep single-cell RNA sequencing on 5,063 single T cells isolated from peripheral blood, tumor, and adjacent normal tissues from six hepatocellular carcinoma patients. [Cell] Abstract | Graphical Abstract

Donor Pulmonary Intravascular Nonclassical Monocytes Recruit Recipient Neutrophils and Mediate Primary Lung Allograft Dysfunction

Investigators found that donor-derived intravascular nonclassical monocytes are retained in human and murine donor lungs used in transplantation and can be visualized at sites of endothelial injury after reperfusion. [Sci Transl Med] Abstract | Press Release

Highly Functional T-Cell Receptor Repertoires Are Abundant in Stem Memory T Cells and Highly Shared Among Individuals

Shared T-cell receptor (TCR) clonotypes were abundant in the stem memory T-cell subset, and TCR diversity of the stem memory T-cell repertoire was significantly lower than in the central memory and effector memory T-cell repertoires. [Sci Rep] Full Article

TGF-Beta/atRA-Induced Tregs Express a Selected Set of MicroRNAs Involved in the Repression of Transcripts Related to Th17 Differentiation

Naïve T cells were immunomagnetically isolated from umbilical cord blood and activated with anti-human CD2/CD3/CD28 beads in the presence of IL-2 alone (CD4_Med) or with the addition of TGF-β and atRA (CD4_TGF/atRA). As compared to CD4_Med, the CD4_TGF/atRA condition allowed the generation of highly suppressive CD4⁺CD25^hiCD127⁻FOXP3^hi iTregs. [Sci Rep] Full Article

Suppression by Human FOXP3⁺ Regulatory T Cells Requires FOXP3-TIP60 Interactions

Scientists characterized the cellular and molecular impact of the most common immunodysregulation polyendocrinopathy enteropathy X-linked syndrome mutation, p.A384T, on patient-derived regulatory T (T_reg) cells. They found that the p.A384T mutation abrogated the suppressive capacity of T_reg cells while preserving FOXP3’s ability to repress inflammatory cytokine production. [Sci Immunol] Abstract

Citrullination of NF-κB p65 Promotes Its Nuclear Localization and TLR-Induced Expression of IL-1β and TNFα

Researchers report that suppression of peptidylarginine deiminase activity attenuated Toll-like receptor–induced expression of IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor–α (TNFα) by neutrophils in vivo and in vitro but not their global transcription activity. [Sci Immunol] Abstract

Mechanical Deformation Induces Depolarization of Neutrophils

The authors used two biophysical tools, an optical stretcher and a novel microcirculation mimetic, to effect physiologically relevant mechanical deformations of single nonadherent human neutrophils. [Sci Adv] Abstract | Press Release

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New Insights into the Role of EMT in Tumor Immune Escape

The authors review the current knowledge of how cellular heterogeneity and plasticity could be involved in shaping the tumor microenvironment and in controlling anti-tumor immunity. Recent findings have led to increased interest in the mechanisms by which cancer cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), or oscillating within the EMT spectrum, might contribute to immune escape through multiple routes. [Mol Oncol] Abstract | Full Article

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Tessa Therapeutics and Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Enter into Strategic Alliance Agreement

Tessa Therapeutics and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy announced the establishment of a multi-year strategic alliance to combine their capabilities to jointly advance research in the field of cancer immunotherapy. [Tessa Therapeutics Pte Ltd.] Press Release

SerImmune Inc. Announces Discovery and Development Collaboration with Merck

SerImmune Inc. announced a research and development collaboration agreement with a subsidiary of Merck. [SerImmune Inc. (PR Newswire Association LLC.)] Press Release

Celyad Reports Promising Early Results at First Dose Level of the Solid Arm of the THINK Trial

Celyad announced promising early clinical results at the three-month follow-up of the first dose-level in the solid tumor arm of the Therapeutic Immunotherapy with CAR-T NKR-2 (THINK) trial. [Celyad] Press Release

TxCell Appoints Lentigen Technology, Inc. to Manufacture the Lentiviral Vector for Its First CAR-Treg Program in Transplant Rejection

TxCell SA announced the signing of a strategic agreement with Lentigen Technology, Inc (LTI). This agreement appoints LTI as TxCell’s contract manufacturing organization for the Good Manufacturing Practice production of its HLA-A2 CAR lentiviral vector. This vector will be used to manufacture TxCell’s CAR-regulatory T cells (Tregs) targeting transplant rejection. [TxCell SA] Press Release

China Cracks Down on Fake Peer Reviews

The Chinese government is going on the offensive against scientists who dupe journals by creating fraudulent reviews of submitted papers. A coalition of agencies led by the science ministry announced that the government would suspend the grants of researchers involved in such fraud, which surfaced earlier this year when a cancer journal retracted 107 research papers from Chinese authors. [Nature News] Editorial

Strengthened US Sanctions on Cuba Disappoint Scientists

US President Donald Trump announced that he would strengthen travel and trade restrictions against Cuba, reversing his predecessor’s attempts to normalize relations with the country. The move is a blow to scientists who hoped that former president Barack Obama’s push to relax US restrictions on Cuba would make it easier for researchers there to travel and to collaborate with colleagues in the United States. [Nature News] Editorial

Macron Consolidates Electoral Victory

The party of France’s recently elected president won an absolute majority in its first general elections, with an agenda that included strong support for research. [Nature News] Editorial

NEW AACR-NCI-EORTC Molecular Targets & Cancer Therapeutics
October 26-30, 2017
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

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NEW Postdoctoral Fellow – Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Harvard Medical School)

NEW Postdoctoral Research Scientist – Immunogenomics (University of Oxford)

Scientific Sales Representative – Cell Separation (STEMCELL Technologies Inc.)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Innate Immunity (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Postdoctoral Fellow – Innate and Adaptive Immunity (Stanford University)

Postdoctoral Position – Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (Weill Cornell Medicine)

Scientist – Analytical Development (KBI Biopharma)

Postdoctoral Research Associate – Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (University of Southern California)

Senior Scientific Researcher – Personalized Cancer Vaccines (Genentech)

Postdoctoral Fellow – Innate Immunity and Neurodegeneration (Mount Sinai Health System)

Assistant Associate – Cancer Immunology (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

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