Ian Cockburn

B cells targeting parasites capture spatially linked antigens to secure T cell help @sciimmunology.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

ONLINE COVERB Cell Help Measures Up Against Parasites. How B cells acquire antigens from large pathogens, including single-celled parasites, to support T cell–driven humoral responses is not well understood. Gao et al. used Ighg2A10 B cells specific for the surface Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (PfCSP) to examine the interaction between B cells and Plasmodium berghei sporozoites engineered to express PfCSP. Ighg2A10 B cells could internalize and present cognate and bystander surface antigens, which resulted in both intramolecular and intermolecular CD4 T cell help. This help either suppressed or supported protective B cell responses depending on whether the CD4 T cells recognized cytosolic or surface sporozoite antigens. This month’s cover is a pseudocolored and digitally altered scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrograph of Plasmodium sporozoites (pale purple) attached to Ighg2A10 B cells (bright pink) at one end. Martin Oeggerli (Micronaut) 2025, with Xin Gao and Ian Cockburn, The John Curtin School of Medicine Research, Australian National University

Nov issue of #Science #Immunology out now!

This week: exTH17 cells sustain #IL17 –independent rheumatoid #arthritis; CXCR4+ mesodermal progenitors → rostral blood vessels, prodefinitive hematopoiesis, & postnatal tissue #macrophages; & how #Bcells acquire antigens from #parasites!

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B cells targeting parasites capture spatially linked antigens to secure T cell help Our understanding of T-cell-dependent humoral responses has been largely shaped by studies involving model antigens such as recombinant proteins and viruses [1][1],[2][2]. In these contexts, B cells i...

To get the ball rolling here on Bsky I'll post this recent preprint that I never posted on X because... you know... ick.
We find that B cells take bites out of parasites to obtain antigens for presentation to T cells.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...