T cells

[Nature Medicine] Researchers used Hannover Medical School’s COVID-19 Contact Study cohort of healthcare professionals to monitor ChAdOx1-nCov-19 (ChAd)-primed immune responses before and three weeks after booster with ChAd or BioNTech/Pfizer’s BNT162b2.

[ImmunityBio, Inc.] ImmunityBio, Inc. announced authorization from the South Africa Health Products Regulatory Authority to proceed with the South Africa Sisonke T-Cell Universal Boost trial. The Phase I/II/III study, which will begin in Q3 2021, is designed to evaluate hAd5 Spike + Nucleocapsid as a boost for South African healthcare workers previously vaccinated with an S-only vaccine.

[Journal of Pathology] The authors characterized and assessed the prognostic potential of distinct immune cell infiltration patterns in the prostate tumor microenvironment.

[Cell Reports] Scientists showed that butyrophilin 2A1 (BTN2A1) was required for BTN3A-mediated Vγ9Vδ2 T cell cytotoxicity against cancer cells, and that expression of the BTN2A1/BTN3A1 complex was sufficient to trigger Vγ9Vδ2 TCR activation.

[Immunity] Researchers defined crucial in vivo functions of the death receptor-mediated and BCL-2-regulated apoptosis pathways in mediating protection against tuberculosis by eliminating distinct populations of infected macrophages and neutrophils and priming T cell responses.

[Cell Reports] While investigating B cell subsets among individuals recently infected with HIV, the authors observe an accumulation of CD27−CD38+ B cells and find that these cells can directly facilitate HIV infection of primary CD4+ T cells in vitro.