Role reversal: adaptive immunity instructs inflammasome activation for anti-viral defence.

ABSTRACT

Signalling by innate immune cells is critical to shaping the adaptive immune response to microbial infection. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Labzin et al reveal that the adaptive immune system can instruct the innate response to adenovirus infection. In human macrophages, antibody-coated adenovirus triggers a novel TRIM21-dependent pathway that activates the NLRP3 inflammasome and the secretion of IL-1ß.