How Foxp3+ Tregs and microbiota work together to control immune system

Check out our new paper in PeerJ Preprints that unlocks the mystery of how Foxp3+ regulatory T cells work that enables proper immune functioning.

Usharauli D, Kamala T. (2017) An identical mechanism governs self-nonself discrimination and effector class regulation. PeerJ  Preprints 5:e3081v1  https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3081v1

Prevailing immunological dogma dictates self-nonself discrimination, meaning to respond or not, and effector class regulation, meaning choosing the most effective response, are two separate decisions the immune system makes when faced with a new antigen. Representing a cardinal departure from the past, our model instead predicts both self-nonself discrimination and effector class regulation are in fact one and the same process controlled by Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) whose antigen-specific repertoire is entirely maintained by commensal microbiota-derived cross-reactive antigens.

 

 

posted by David Usharauli