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NKT cells: the smoking gun in fungal-induced asthma?

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Aspergillus fumigatus is a fungus that is associated with a severe form of asthma, although the precise immunological basis for this disease is unclear. A new study in mice shows that natural killer T (NKT) cells are crucial for progression of A. fumigatus–induced asthma and also identifies a glycolipid antigen from this fungus that seems to drive this NKT cell–mediated inflammatory response (pages 1297–1304).

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Figure 1: A role for NKT cells in A. fumigatus–mediated asthma.

Katie Vicari

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dale I. Godfrey and Daniel G. Pellicci are at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.,

    Dale I Godfrey & Daniel G Pellicci

  2. Jamie Rossjohn is at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.,

    Jamie Rossjohn

Authors
  1. Dale I Godfrey
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  2. Daniel G Pellicci
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  3. Jamie Rossjohn
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Correspondence to Dale I Godfrey.

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Godfrey, D., Pellicci, D. & Rossjohn, J. NKT cells: the smoking gun in fungal-induced asthma?. Nat Med 19, 1210–1211 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3360

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