Working with dangerous bugs.

As part of the national effort in the US to protect civilians from bioterrorist attacks, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) was charged with the development of diverse research resources. The NIAID Resources for Biodefense Research program is forging new collaborations between immunologists and infectious disease experts and is reinvigorating research in the general area of immune protection against pathogenic infection.

Altered CD40 ligand induction in tolerant T lymphocytes.

CD40 ligand (CD40L) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily and is expressed on the surface of activated T lymphocytes. The interaction of CD40L with CD40 on B cells results in B cell activation, immunoglobulin (Ig) secretion and Ig class switching. To study anergy as a mechanism of murine CD4 T cell tolerance, we determined both in vivo and in vitro that CD3-activated anergic cells are deficient in the ability to stimulate B cell proliferation, and that anergic cells are defective for the T cell receptor/CD3-mediated induction of CD40L expression.