Human innate B cells: a link between host defense and autoimmunity?

Interplay between Candida albicans and the mammalian innate host defense.

Candida albicans is both the most common fungal commensal microorganism in healthy individuals and the major fungal pathogen causing high mortality in at-risk populations, especially immunocompromised patients. In this review, we summarize the interplay between the host innate system and C. albicans, ranging from how the host recognizes, responds, and clears C. albicans infection to how C. albi...

Role of the CD19 and CD21/35 receptor complex in innate immunity, host defense and autoimmunity.

Humoral immune responses to foreign and self-antigens must be tightly regulated to facilitate protective immunity to pathogens while avoiding autoimmune responses. The outcome of these responses is determined in part by signals generated through the B lymphocyte antigen receptor (BCR). These signals are further supplemented and finetuned by other cell-surface molecules that modify and provide a...

Salt, chloride, bleach, and innate host defense.

Salt provides 2 life-essential elements: sodium and chlorine. Chloride, the ionic form of chlorine, derived exclusively from dietary absorption and constituting the most abundant anion in the human body, plays critical roles in many vital physiologic functions, from fluid retention and secretion to osmotic maintenance and pH balance. However, an often overlooked role of chloride is its function...

A Possible Link Between Autoimmunity and Cancer

A Link Between a Common Mutation in CFTR and Impaired Innate and Adaptive Viral Defense

Acute respiratory virus infections predispose the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung to chronic bacterial colonization, which contributes to high mortality. For reasons unknown, respiratory virus infections have a prolonged duration in CF. Here, we demonstrate that mice carrying the most frequent cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) mutation in humans, ΔF508, show increased morbidi...