Asian Scientist (Jul. 18, 2013) – An international team of scientists has discovered a new class of white blood cells that play a critical role as the first line of defense against harmful fungal and bacterial infections.
The discovery of these white blood cells, found in human lung and gut tissues, may lead to better design of vaccines and targeted immuno-therapies for dieseases such as pneumonia caused by infectious microbes.
All immune responses against infectious agents are activated and regulated by dendritic cells (DCs), a specialized group of white blood cells which present tiny fragments from micro-organisms, vaccines or tumors to the T cells.
T cells are immune cells that circulate around our bodies to scan for cellular abnormalities and infections. Of the different T cells, T helper 17 (Th17) cells specialize in activating a protective response crucial for our body to eliminate harmful bacteria or fungi.
In their study, published in Immunity, the scientists identified a new subset of DCs (named CD11b+ DCs), which are essential for activating this protective Th17 response.
In their experiments, mice lacking the CD11b+ DCs were unable to induce the protective Th17 response against the Aspergillus fumigatus, one of the most common fungal species in hospital-acquired infections.
The scientists also showed for the first time that key immune functions of this new class of white blood cells are similar to those found in mice. This means that findings in mouse studies can be applied to develop advanced clinical therapies for the human immune system.
“As dendritic cells have the unique ability to ‘sense’ the type of pathogen present in order to activate the appropriate immune response, they are attractive targets to explore for vaccine development,” said Dr Florent Ginhoux, the leader of the research team.
“This discovery revealed fresh inroads to better exploit dendritic cells for improved vaccine design against life-threatening fungal infections.”
The article can be found at: Schlitzer et al. (2013) IRF4 Transcription Factor-Dependent CD11b+ Dendritic Cells In Human And Mouse Control Mucosal IL-17 Cytokine Responses.
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Source: A*STAR; Image: Peter See/SIgN.
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