Differential influences of environment and self-motion on place and grid cell firing

Place and grid cells in the hippocampal formation provide foundational representations of environmental location, and potentially of locations within conceptual spaces. Some accounts predict that environmental sensory information and self-motion are encoded in complementary representations, while other models suggest that both features combine to produce a single coherent representation. Here, we use virtual reality to dissociate visual environmental from physical motion inputs, while recording place and grid cells in mice navigating virtual open arenas. Place cell firing patterns predominantly reflect visual inputs, while grid cell activity reflects a greater influence of physical motion. Thus, even when recorded simultaneously, place and grid cell firing patterns differentially reflect environmental information (or ‘states’) and physical self-motion (or ‘transitions’), and need not be mutually coherent

Epidermal Notch1 recruits ROR gamma(+) group 3 innate lymphoid cells to orchestrate normal skin repair

Notch has a well-defined role in controlling cell fate decisions in the embryo and the adult epidermis and immune systems, yet emerging evidence suggests Notch also directs non-cell-autonomous signalling in adult tissues. Here, we show that Notch1 works as a damage response signal. Epidermal Notch induces recruitment of immune cell subsets including RORg gamma+ ILC3s into wounded dermis; ROR gamma+ ILC3s are potent sources of IL17F in wounds and control immunological and epidermal cell responses. Mice deficient for ROR gamma+ ILC3s heal wounds poorly resulting from delayed epidermal proliferation and macrophage recruitment in a CCL3-dependent process. Notch1 upregulates TNF alpha and the ILC3 recruitment chemokines CCL20 and CXCL13. TNF alpha, as a Notch1 effector, directs ILC3 localization and rates of wound healing. Altogether these findings suggest that Notch is a key stress/injury signal in skin epithelium driving innate immune cell recruitment and normal skin tissue repair

A CD4(+) T-cell immune response to a conserved epitope in the circumsporozoite protein correlates with protection from natural Plasmodium falciparum infection and disease.

Many human T-cell responses specific for epitopes in Plasmodium falciparum have been described, but none has yet been shown to be predictive of protection against natural malaria infection. Here we report a peptide-specific T-cell assay that is strongly associated with protection of humans in The Gambia, West Africa, from both malaria infection and disease. The assay detects interferon-gamma-secreting CD4(+) T cells specific for a conserved sequence from the circumsporozoite protein, which binds to many human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR types. The correlation was observed using a cultured, rather than an ex vivo, ELISPOT assay that measures central memory-'type T cells rather than activated effector T cells. These findings provide direct evidence for a protective role for CD4(+) T cells in humans, and a precise target for the design of improved vaccines against P. falciparum