Publications by authors named "Felix Clemens Richter"
In this issue of Cell Reports, Redford et al. uncouple the role of CD4 and CD8 T cells in controlling anorexia and wasting of muscle and adipose tissue during chronic parasitic infections. These results shed light on the impact of adaptive immune cells on organ catabolism.
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- Cross-institutional journal clubs are groups where people from different schools or organizations come together to discuss research papers that haven't been officially published yet, called preprints.
- These clubs help community members share their opinions and give feedback on new research.
- By participating in these clubs, researchers can improve their skills and experience in reviewing important scientific work.
Lipids play a major role in inflammatory diseases by altering inflammatory cell functions, either through their function as energy substrates or as lipid mediators such as oxylipins. Autophagy, a lysosomal degradation pathway that limits inflammation, is known to impact on lipid availability, however, whether this controls inflammation remains unexplored. We found that upon intestinal inflammation visceral adipocytes upregulate autophagy and that adipocyte-specific loss of the autophagy gene Atg7 exacerbates inflammation.
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- The swift development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines highlights a successful global collaboration in research, utilizing innovative technologies.
- All approved vaccines show high efficacy and safety but there is still a strong need for more vaccine candidates to complete phase 3 clinical trials.
- As SARS-CoV-2 is likely to become endemic, researchers are focusing on modifying vaccine designs to effectively address new variants while examining immunogenicity, dosing, and efficacy in their studies.
Coronavirus disease 2019 has generated a rapidly evolving field of research, with the global scientific community striving for solutions to the current pandemic. Characterizing humoral responses towards SARS-CoV-2, as well as closely related strains, will help determine whether antibodies are central to infection control, and aid the design of therapeutics and vaccine candidates. This review outlines the major aspects of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody research to date, with a focus on the various prophylactic and therapeutic uses of antibodies to alleviate disease in addition to the potential of cross-reactive therapies and the implications of long-term immunity.
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- Obesity significantly increases the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, with obese individuals being twice as likely to suffer complications compared to those of healthy weight.
- The condition causes chronic low-grade inflammation and alters lipid metabolism, though the exact mechanisms by which these changes influence severe SARS-CoV-2 infections are still unclear.
- Understanding the immune and metabolic changes in obese patients could lead to improved treatments and more effective vaccine strategies for respiratory virus infections.
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- Vaccines are essential for building immunity and preventing diseases, but they are less effective in older adults, and the reasons behind this are not well understood.
- The study finds that autophagy, a process that helps maintain immune memory, is activated in specific T cells after vaccination in healthy humans, but this response declines with age due to lower levels of a metabolite called spermidine.
- Supplementing spermidine can restore autophagy function in T cells from older individuals, revealing potential drug targets to enhance vaccine effectiveness for the aging population.
Article Synopsis
- - The differentiation and function of immune cells are heavily influenced by metabolic changes, requiring micronutrients like vitamins and energy sources such as amino acids and fatty acids.
- - The bone marrow plays a critical role in producing blood cells, relying on interactions between progenitor cells, mature immune cells, and the surrounding stromal environment.
- - Current research highlights the nutritional exchange between immune and stromal cells, particularly in the bone marrow, suggesting that understanding this relationship could enhance immune cell production in situations like aging or after stem cell transplants.
The microRNA-34a is a well-studied tumor suppressor microRNA (miRNA) and a direct downstream target of TP53 with roles in several pathways associated with oncogenesis, such as proliferation, cellular growth, and differentiation. Due to its broad tumor suppressive activity, it is not surprising that miR34a expression is altered in a wide variety of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. However, the mechanisms by which miR34a is regulated in these cancers is largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of macroautophagy/autophagy, a conserved lysosomal degradation pathway, during cellular differentiation has been well studied over the last decade. In particular, evidence for its role during immune cell differentiation is growing. Despite the description of a variety of dramatic immune phenotypes in tissue-specific autophagy knockout models, the underlying mechanisms are still under debate.
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