Interferon-λ modulates dendritic cells to facilitate T cell immunity during infection with influenza A virus.

Submitted by galeadmin on Mon, 11/04/2019 - 14:26

Hemann EA, Green R, Turnbull JB, Langlois RA, Savan R, Gale M Jr.

Nat Immunol. 2019 Aug;20(8):1035-1045. doi: 10.1038/s41590-019-0408-z. Epub 2019 Jun 24.

Abstract

Type III interferon (IFN-λ) is important for innate immune protection at mucosal surfaces and has therapeutic benefit against influenza A virus (IAV) infection. However, the mechanisms by which IFN-λ programs adaptive immune protection against IAV are undefined. Here we found that IFN-λ signaling in dendritic cell (DC) populations was critical for the development of protective IAV-specific CD8+ T cell responses. Mice lacking the IFN-λ receptor (Ifnlr1-/-) had blunted CD8+ T cell responses relative to wild type and exhibited reduced survival after heterosubtypic IAV re-challenge. Analysis of DCs revealed IFN-λ signaling directed the migration and function of CD103+ DCs for development of optimal antiviral CD8+ T cell responses, and bioinformatic analyses identified IFN-λ regulation of a DC IL-10 immunoregulatory network. Thus, IFN-λ serves a critical role in bridging innate and adaptive immunity from lung mucosa to lymph nodes to program DCs to direct effective T cell immunity against IAV.

PMID: 31235953

PMCID: PMC6642690 [Available on 2019-12-24]

DOI:10.1038/s41590-019-0408-z