Saturday, April 24, 2010

Medullary Dendritic Cells are Responsible for the Humoral Response to Influenza Virus


It has long been known that sinus-lining macrophages play an important role in limiting the spread of viruses to the body by the usual phagocytic mechanisms. However, it remained unknown whether or not these macrophages were also responsible for the virus-specific humoral response following infection. In other words, do the macrophages present viral antigens to B cells in the lymph nodes and thus induce the generation of viral-specific antibodies?

Researchers from the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston seeking to answer this question have discovered an interesting and unexpected result. Using a wide variety of approaches, their experiments suggest that while macrophages are important for limiting the systemic spread of viruses, they are not involved in generation of the humoral response after all. The cells that are responsible for this immunity are the medullary dendritic cells of the lymph nodes. They utilize the lectin receptor SIGN-R1 to capture lymph-borne influenza virus and promote humoral immunity.

As of yet, not very much is understood about these medullary DCs. However, studies such as this one are vital for the advancement of vaccine technology. Knowing which cells are responsible for which aspects of the immune response opens up the opportunity to target those cells in such a way as to create more effective and efficient vaccines.

Relevant scientific article:
Gonzalez, Santiago F., et. al. Capture of influenza by medullary dendritic cells via SIGN-R1 is essential for humoral immunity in draining lymph nodes. Nature Immunology 11, 427–434 (2010).
http://www.nature.com/ni/journal/v11/n5/abs/ni.1856.html#/

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