This work represents the first evaluation of the effects of water extract of C. nuda (WE-CN), an edible mushroom, on murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and the potential pathway through which the effects are mediated. Our experimental results show that WE-CN could induce phenotypic maturation of DCs, as shown by the increased expression of MHC and costimulatory molecules. In add...

Abstract Excessive inflammatory responses induced upon SARS-CoV-2 infection are associated with severe symptoms of COVID-19. Inflammasomes activated in response to also COVID-19 severity. Here, we show a distinct mechanism by which N protein promotes NLRP3 inflammasome activation induce hyperinflammation. facilitates maturation proinflammatory cytokines and induces cultured cells mice. Mechanis...

Maturation of T cell-activating APCs directly links innate and adaptive immunity and is typically triggered by microbial infection. Transplantation of allografts, which are sterile, generates strong T cell responses; however, it is unclear how grafts induce APC maturation in the absence of microbial-derived signals. A widely accepted hypothesis is that dying cells in the graft release "danger" ...

Recently it has been shown that dendritic cells (DC) express both Notch and Notch ligands, allowing for the possibility that Notch signaling may influence their maturation. We show that although both Jagged (Jgd) and Delta-like (DlL) ligands were able to activate the canonical Notch pathway in mouse DC, only Jgd1 could induce the production of certain cytokines. Maturation of DC via Jgd1 result...

Amphibian eggs normally require meiotic maturation to be competent for fertilization. A necessary prerequisite for this event is sperm binding, and we show that under normal physiological conditions this property is acquired at, but not before, meiotic maturation. Immature oocytes do not bind sperm, but injection of total egg poly(A)+ mRNA into immature oocytes confers sperm binding in the abse...

Autophagy is an essential cellular degradation pathway in neurons; defects in autophagy are sufficient to induce neurodegeneration. In this paper, we investigate autophagosome dynamics in primary dorsal root ganglion neurons. Autophagosome biogenesis occurs distally in a constitutive process at the neurite tip. Autophagosomes initially move bidirectionally and then switch to unidirectional, pro...

Cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system arise from circulating blood monocytes (MO) that undergo further maturation on leaving the vasculature and migration into the various tissues and body cavities. This terminal differentiation step is also observed in vitro when blood MO are cultured in the presence of serum. Yet, the inducing signals present in serum are not defined. We have established ...

Leishmania donovani promastigotes survive inside macrophage phagosomes by inhibiting phagosomal maturation. The main surface glycoconjugate on promastigotes, lipophosphoglycan (LPG), is crucial for survival and mediates the formation of a protective shell of F-actin around the phagosome. Previous studies have demonstrated that this effect involves inhibition of protein kinase C alpha. The prese...

Human γδ T cells expressing the Vγ9Vδ2 T cell receptor can induce maturation of dendritic cells (DC) into antigen-presenting cells (APC) and B cells into antibody-secreting plasma cells. Since B cells are capable of presenting antigens to T cells, we investigated if Vγ9Vδ2 T cells can influence antigen-presentation by these cells. We report that Vγ9Vδ2 T cells induced expression of CD86, HLA-DR...

Human beta-defensins (hBDs) are antimicrobial peptides that have an important role in innate immune responses at epithelial barriers such as the skin. However, the role that hBDs have in initiating cellular immune responses that contribute to antigen-specific adaptive immunity is not well understood. Here we show that one member of the hBD family, hBD3, can induce maturation and T-helper type 1...