Trends in Immunology

Trends Immunol. 2026 May;47(5):340-342. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.03.013. NO ABSTRACT PMID:42167145 | DOI:10.1016/j.it.2026.03.013

Trends Immunol. 2026 May 20:S1471-4906(26)00103-1. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.04.010. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Grant writing is a career-defining skill that most researchers learn too late and without formal training. Here, we describe the integration of a structured, discipline-specific grant writing workshop into a postgraduate immunotherapy course and show that it measurably improved student confidence, funding literacy, … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 May 20:S1471-4906(26)00102-X. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.04.009. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Upon leaving the protective microenvironment of the primary tumor, disseminating tumor cells (DTCs) must withstand immune surveillance on their own. Cassandras et al. recently demonstrated that activation of the glucocorticoid receptor pathway serves as a critical mechanism for immune evasion during metastatic outgrowth … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 May 16:S1471-4906(26)00101-8. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.04.008. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT The adaptive immune system (AIS) is traditionally viewed as a defensive vertebrate innovation forged by pathogen pressure. Yet many of its core features suggest it is a homeostatic, regulatory circuit, not simply a sophisticated means of antimicrobial warfare. The horizontal transfer of mitochondria–endogenous … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 May 5:S1471-4906(26)00098-0. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.04.005. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Glycan-specific antibodies are classically associated with limited durability. In a recent Immunity article, Fryer et al. showed that repeated Streptococcus pyogenes exposure elicits glycan-specific germinal center responses in tonsils despite reduced T cell help, revealing key limitations of anti-glycan immunity and opportunities to … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 May 1:S1471-4906(26)00097-9. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.04.004. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Itaconate is an immunomodulatory metabolite that links metabolism and inflammation. Li et al. uncover a mechanism by which itaconate and 4-octyl itaconate suppress cytokine signaling through the alkylation of tyrosine kinase 2 and Janus kinase 1. This study reveals a direct metabolic control … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 Apr 30:S1471-4906(26)00076-1. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.03.015. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Sickness, or sickness behavior, is a state of altered physiology and behavior generated by the brain-immune axis during infection, which is generally assumed to contribute to host defense. Here, we examine this assumption by framing sickness as organismal-scale immunity and explore predicted parallels … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 Apr 27:S1471-4906(26)00071-2. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.03.010. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Placental biology is increasingly framed through a signaling paradigm in which maternal microbiome-derived mediators-rather than microbial colonization-affect the function of the interface. This review synthesizes evidence that circulating microbial signals, including short-chain fatty acids, tryptophan-derived indoles, bile-acid-linked ligands, microbe-associated molecular patterns, and bacterial … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 Apr 23:S1471-4906(26)00095-5. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.04.002. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT It remains unclear how mitochondrial stress instructs the transcriptional programme of terminal T cell exhaustion. In a recent study, Xu et al. uncovered a proteasome-haem-BACH2 axis in which haem liberated from damaged mitochondrial haemoproteins acts as a molecular messenger that couples mitochondrial injury … Read more

Trends Immunol. 2026 Apr 22:S1471-4906(26)00092-X. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2026.04.001. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate-like T cells that recognize microbial metabolites. Recent studies have suggested numerous markers to define MAIT cells with distinct functional characteristics. This review synthesizes available data to identify markers that distinguish type 1 and type 3 murine … Read more