Adaptive immunity has often been considered the penultimate of immune capacities. That system is now being deconstructed to encompass less stringent rules that govern its initiation, actual effector activity, and ambivalent results. Expanding the repertoire of innate immunity found in all invertebrates has greatly facilitated the relaxation of convictions concerning what actually constitutes in...

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2011 to Jules Hoffmann, Bruce Beutler, and the late Ralph Steinman recognizes accomplishments in understanding and unifying the two strands of immunology, the evolutionarily ancient innate immune response and modern adaptive immunity.

For decades, flies have been a model for innate immunity. In this issue of Cell, Tassetto et al. describe a mechanism for antiviral RNAi spreading that parallels mammalian adaptive immunity through reverse-transcribed vDNA circles and the systemic dissemination of small-RNA-containing exosomes.

Over the last 10 years, a great boost of knowledge accumulated on the immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties of endocannabinoids (eCBs). In this scenario, these bioactive lipids, which are produced by most immune cells along with a set of receptors and enzymes that regulate their synthesis and degradation, act as secondary modulators and increase or decrease a plethora of immune func...

Immunological memory is a hallmark of adaptive immunity, and understanding T cell memory will be central to the development of effective cell-mediated vaccines. The characteristics and functions of CD4 memory cells have not been well defined. Here we demonstrate that the increased size of the secondary response is solely a consequence of the increased antigen-specific precursor frequency within...

In 1973, Ralph Steinman and Zanvil Cohn discovered an unusual looking population of cells with an unprecedented ability to activate naive T cells. Dubbed "dendritic cells," these cells are now known as the primary instigators of adaptive immunity.

This article focuses on the functions of NF-kappaB that vitally impact lymphocytes and thus adaptive immunity. NF-kappaB has long been known to be essential for many of the responses of mature lymphocytes to invading pathogens. In addition, NF-kappaB has important functions in shaping the immune system so it is able to generate adaptive responses to pathogens. In both contexts, NF-kappaB execut...

Studies in tumor immunology have relied upon the classic paradigm of distinct innate and adaptive parts of the immune system. However, recent advances in immunology suggest that this division may be overly simplistic, with emerging evidence of a breakdown in conventional hallmarks of each system. Here, we provide an overview of this area and discuss how the concept of a continuum of immune cell...

Invasive aspergillosis is often a consequence of immune suppression, and accumulating evidence points to a role for adaptive immunity. Hence, it may be possible to manipulate the adaptive immune system to enhance protective immunity in at-risk individuals. In this issue of the JCI, De Luca and colleagues describe the ontogeny of adaptive immune responses to murine aspergillosis infection in rel...

We investigate the dynamics of a simple epidemiological model for the invasion by a pathogen strain of a population where another strain circulates. We assume that reinfection by the same strain is possible but occurs at a reduced rate due to acquired immunity. The rate of reinfection by a distinct strain is also reduced due to cross-immunity. Individual based simulations of this model on a 'sm...