Dendritic cells in the induction of protective versus pathologic immune memory to pulmonary viruses

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic we have neither fully satisfactory therapeutics nor a vaccine. This is no surprise as immune responses to pulmonary viruses are notoriously difficult to predict.

The lungs are a vulnerable organ with a direct connection to the outside world that cannot tolerate high levels of immune inflammation, thus requiring careful balance of protection versus inflammation.

Unbalanced immunity is the root cause of the severe illness we see in some individuals in response to several different viruses.

Here, we use a mouse model for a common virus infection combined with bioinformatics to specifically probe for factors that drive antiviral protection versus lung injury with the goal of developing new, faithful targets for preventative and therapeutic intervention in people.

We focus our work on the role of dendritic cell subsets in inducing long-term protective immunity, and address aspects leading to the observed dichotomy in immune response efficiency across ages.

Our research will contribute to successful disease intervention spanning current and future complications caused by pulmonary viral agents.