No abstract

Cancer is a form of non-resolving, persistent inflammation where varying numbers of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) infiltrate and adopt different activation states between anti-tumor M1 and pro-tumor M2 phenotypes. Here we resolve a cascade causing differential macrophage phenotypes in the tumor microenvironment. Reduction in TNF mRNA production or loss of Type I TNF receptor signaling resulted in a striking pattern of enhanced M2 mRNA expression. M2 gene expression was driven in part by IL-13 from eosinophils co-recruited with inflammatory monocytes, a pathway that was suppressed by TNF. Our data define regulatory nodes within the tumor microenvironment that balance M1 and M2 populations. Our results show macrophage polarization in cancer is dynamic and dependent on the balance between TNF and IL-13, thus providing a strategy for manipulating TAMs.

Inflammatory gene activation must be rigorously controlled to ensure a rapid, but transient, response. In this work, a regulatory circuit is revealed that governs the destabilization of inflammatory mRNAs and plays an essential role in re-establishing immune homeostasis after inflammatory stimulus.

Streptococcus pyogenes is a Gram-positive human pathogen that is recognized by yet unknown pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Engagement of these receptor molecules during infection with S. pyogenes, a largely extracellular bacterium with limited capacity for intracellular survival, causes innate immune cells to produce inflammatory mediators such as TNF, but also type I interferon (IFN). Here we show that signaling elicited by type I IFNs is required for successful defense of mice against lethal subcutaneous cellulitis caused by S. pyogenes. Type I IFN signaling was accompanied with reduced neutrophil recruitment to the site of infection. Mechanistic analysis revealed that macrophages and conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) employ different signaling pathways leading to IFN-beta production. Macrophages required IRF3, STING, TBK1 and partially MyD88, whereas in cDCs the IFN-beta production was fully dependent on IRF5 and MyD88. Furthermore, IFN-beta production by macrophages was dependent on the endosomal delivery of streptococcal DNA, while in cDCs streptococcal RNA was identified as the IFN-beta inducer. Despite a role of MyD88 in both cell types, the known IFN-inducing TLRs were individually not required for generation of the IFN-beta response. These results demonstrate that the innate immune system employs several strategies to efficiently recognize S. pyogenes, a pathogenic bacterium that succeeded in avoiding recognition by the standard arsenal of TLRs.