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As part of the adaptive immune system, T cells are involved in the defence against pathogens. However, if they recognise healthy, self-structures instead of invading pathogens, autoimmune diseases can result. It is still insufficiently understood which factors are responsible for the dysregulation of the T cells. A new EU-funded programme for young researchers, coordinated by Prof. Jochen Hühn at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, aims to study tissue-resident T cells in more detail. Within the framework of the training network, 15 doctoral students will be trained at academic and non-academic institutions in ten European countries.

Viruses have coexisted with mankind for a long time. The oldest genetic evidence of a viral disease shows that people already suffered from liver inflammation caused by hepatitis B viruses about 7,000 years ago. The genetic material of these viruses was found in teeth from this period, which were discovered in Saxony-Anhalt. Since then, many different viral diseases have appeared –and others, like smallpox, have disappeared forever. Newly emerging viruses, which have previously only spread in the animal kingdom, have been able to cross the species barrier and adapt to humans as new hosts. Since the end of 2019, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2) has shown that nowadays such a virus can take over the whole world in a very short time.

A group of scientists are calling for a pan-European coronavirus action plan. Given the high numbers of cases and the new variants, they say, greater efforts to contain the virus are required across the whole continent. Case numbers must be reduced as quickly as possible, as this has strong advantages for society and economy. According to the paper published in the British medical journal The Lancet, the joint action of all European countries will make each national and local effort more effective.

A huge community of microorganisms lives on and in our body – the microbiota. It is often also referred to as the microbiome, although the term microbiome actually describes the genetic information of the microbiota. Microbiome research is a relatively young field of research. Many fundamental questions are still open, and the search for possible therapeutic approaches is still in its infancy. Bioinformaticians at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, in cooperation with researchers from the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA, have now identified CRISPR regions of the human microbiome on the basis of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP1-II). These regions form part of the bacterial defence system against viruses and can provide an overview of past attacks. The scientists are making their extensive data resource available to microbiome research so that the interactions between viruses and bacteria can be explored further. The study, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is published in the current issue of the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

Pathogenic bacteria are armed with a large arsenal of molecular weapons that help them infect their hosts. These virulence factors enable the bacteria to gain access to nutrients, to establish a niche for survival or simply to disable the immune system. Toxins are virulence factors that bacteria produce to damage their host. To do this, the toxins often have to travel long ways: first leaving the bacterium, finding and then penetrating specific host cells to finally find and alter their target molecules. A current study by researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig in collaboration with the University of Münster improves the understanding of the activity and delivery of an important virulence factor. The scientists solved the three-dimensional structure of the cytotoxic necrotizing factor (CNF) – a toxin found in different Gram-negative species – and discovered novel protein structures that are not or only very distantly similar to any previously investigated protein structures. The results facilitate the development of therapeutics that inhibit the toxin and were published in the EMBO Journal.