Immunological memory research has previously referred only to the adaptive immune system and its responses to pathological triggers. This was challenged, however, by a study in innate immune memory, also known as trained immunity, in human and mouse experimental systems. Since then, many studies have built on those findings and proved that innate immune cells and structural cells can develop a non-specific memory state.
There are still, however, many questions to answer about the fundamental and clinical mechanisms of establishing innate immune memory, its risks and how it can be used to improve health.
Curating Review Articles and original research into this area, this Focus Issue looks at the history, current state and future of innate immune memory studies, and provides a critical assessment of this field of research.
This Focus Issue was overseen by eLife Senior Editors Satyajit Rath, Carla Rothlin and Tadatsugu Taniguchi.
The editors have put together an Editorial that talks more about trained immunity, its history and future potential in leading the next breakthrough in medicine.
We hope this Focus Issue sparks new discussions and opens new fields of knowledge that lead to potential therapeutic interventions.
Collection
- Immunology and Inflammation
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
The articles in this focus issue discuss progress towards a more complete understanding of memory in the innate immune system, and efforts to exploit "trained immunity" for the development of new vaccines and therapeutics.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Deciphering the gut biome's, including helminths', influence on human trained immunity will unlock novel immunotherapies harnessing the immune reprogramming potential of their secreted factors and extracellular vesicles.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Trained immunity is a form of innate immune cell memory that is being developed as a novel immunotherapeutic approach for cancer treatment.
- Evolutionary Biology
- Immunology and Inflammation
Insects possess a remarkable ability to develop innate immune memory, and the mechanisms underlying this process are becoming a central topic in innate immunity research.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Current approaches in bioengineering are synthesized and methods for their implementation are suggested for the induction and modulation of trained immunity in the treatment of human diseases.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Both adaptive and innate immune memory responses have been described in gamma delta T cells, yet the mechanisms, the ligands and the gamma delta T cell subsets generating memory responses have remain to be explored.
- Immunology and Inflammation
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Several studies have now demonstrated that trained immunity occurs in the airways to several pathogens and products, while its utility is yet to be determined.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) shape trained immunity, balancing infection responses and chronic inflammation, and TLR agonists are promising immunomodulators for infectious diseases and cancer.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Inflammation supports selection, differentiation bias, and epigenetic reprogramming of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to generate innate immune memory.
- Immunology and Inflammation
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
It is proposed that innate immune cells are positioned to activate the naïve B cell repertoire and rational application of training stimuli could enforce this, offsetting original antigenic sin, wherein recall of ‘off-target’ B cell memory can obscure vaccine effectiveness.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Review of the emerging understanding of trained immunity in the skin and how infection-driven cellular processes induce long-lasting immune adaptation and modulate skin barrier integrity.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Cell metabolic processes, particularly glucose, glutamine, and lipid metabolism, orchestrate inflammatory responses and promote epigenetic changes shaping microglia immune memory.
- Immunology and Inflammation
The increasing knowledge of barrier tissue-resident memory macrophages and trained innate immunity (TII) will help develop both nontarget-specific and target-specific TII-based vaccine strategies.
- Genetics and Genomics
Hematopoietic reprogramming reflects the selective and evolutionarily conserved engagement of transcription factor networks that encode innate immune memory in long-lived stem cells.
- Immunology and Inflammation
In vivo perturbations and single-cell RNA-seq reveal cell-type-specific STAT1-IFNg signaling in regulation of trained immunity in tissue-resident immune cells.
- Immunology and Inflammation
Indoxyl sulfate, a key uremic toxin in chronic kidney disease (CKD), induces trained immunity in monocytes via crosstalk between aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-dependent epigenetic reprogramming by enhancement of the arachidonic acid pathway and AhR-independent metabolic rewiring.
- Immunology and Inflammation
β-Glucan-mediated trained immunity activates alveolar macrophages which exacerbates acute lung injury induced by LPS.
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- Immunology and Inflammation
The kinase activity of Aurora kinase A is required for preserving S-adenosylmethionine availability for histone methylation and epigenetic reprogramming during trained immunity induction in macrophages.
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