1. Micro RNAs in Tfh regulation: Small molecules with a big impact
- Author
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Luis Graca, Afonso P. Basto, and Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa
- Subjects
Micro RNAs ,T Follicular Helper Cells ,Immunology ,Viral infection ,Mice ,microRNA ,Transcriptional regulation ,Animals ,Immunology and Allergy ,biology ,Inducible gene ,Germinal center ,T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer ,Germinal Center ,Small molecule ,Cell biology ,MicroRNAs ,micro RNAs ,Virus Diseases ,biology.protein ,T follicular helper cells ,T follicular regulatory cells ,Antibody ,Biogenesis - Abstract
© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH, The germinal center (GC) reactions are critical for the production of high-affinity antibodies that comprise the protective humoral response elicited by infection or vaccination. GCs are initiated through the interaction of B cells with T follicular helper (Tfh) cells. While the transcriptional regulation of Tfh differentiation has been studied in great detail, the impact of micro RNAs (miRNAs) on Tfh development and stability has been harder to address. It was previously shown that a complete deletion of miRNAs biogenesis prevents Tfh differentiation. In this issue of the European Journal of Immunology [Eur. J. Immunol. 2021. 51: 408-413], Zeiträg et al. use an inducible gene deletion approach to reveal that miRNAs are also required for the maintenance of Tfh cells induced following viral infection in mice. These results provide new clues to the regulation of GC responses through Tfh and T follicular regulatory cells., This research is funded by grant 081/596653860 from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal (to L. Graca).
- Published
- 2021