This project will confirm the early establishment of a protective lung resident memory B cell (BRM) population, and investigate the metabolic pathways that poise these cells to form antibody-secreting cells (ASCs). Various groups have studied the formation of Ag specific memory B cells, but it has not been in the context of a pathogen that holds significant.
For an effective protective response against an invading pathogen, the first lines of defense are the immune players that are situated at the port of entry of the pathogen. Memory B cells are needed to underpin the neutralizing antibody response but little is known about pathogen specific memory B cells and there is a dearth of information on memory B cells that reside in the lung. In this proposal, we aim to test the establishment of the lung resident memory B cells while testing the cellular mechanisms that they use to meet their energetic (metabolic) demands and fulfill their protective functions by forming effective antibody secreting cells post intranasal influenza virus infection which will aid in the determination of future targets for vaccines and immunotherapies to infections and other disease models.
| Allie, S Rameeza; Randall, Troy D (2017) Pulmonary immunity to viruses. Clin Sci (Lond) 131:1737-1762 |
