Nat Immunol: key mechanism for finding gut microbes that maintain healthy immune system

February 28, 2019 / BIOON / - researchers from Germany have found a key mechanism to control the immune response against intestinal microorganisms The results of this transnational study will help develop a new method for the treatment of chronic inflammatory bowel disease The results of relevant research were recently published in Nature Immunology Photo source: the Nature Immunology immune system protects the small intestine from the spread of pathogenic bacteria, while allowing probiotics to grow and reproduce In turn, the composition of gut microbes has an impact on the quality of the immune response A team led by Dr Alexander scheffold of the University of Kiel (CAU), Germany, has revealed the key mechanisms for maintaining a balance between intestinal microorganisms and immune responses The researchers studied the molecular regulatory elements of mouse immune microbial interaction They focused on an immune cell called regulatory T cells, which can prevent harmful and even beneficial microorganisms in the small intestine from being attacked by the immune system "We found that a molecule called c-Maf is essential for the development and function of specific regulatory T cells in the gut." Scheffold explained C-Maf can prevent the immune system from attacking intestinal microorganisms "Without this molecule, the gut immune system would overreact and the composition of gut microbes would change dramatically." Dr Christian Neumann, the first author of the study, said This change in composition is fairly stable: when the researchers transplanted the altered microbes into mice with intact c-maf-regulated T cells, they still overreacted the small intestinal immune system "These results suggest that the immune system and microorganisms interact to establish and maintain a balance in the gut environment." Professor scheffold said "This explains how microbial disorders contribute to chronic enteritis and why treatment fails." These findings will lead to the development of new drugs for the treatment of chronic enteritis, aimed at influencing and regulating the immune response and intestinal microbiota In the future, researchers hope to study how to break down the pathological interaction between intestinal microorganisms and the immune system and restore it to normal Reference: Christian Neumann et al, c-maf-dependent Treg cell control of internal Th17 cells and IgA established host – microbiota homeostasis, Nature Immunology (2019) Doi: 10.1038/s41590-019-0316-2