bims-actimu 2023-12-10 papers

Issue of 2023‒12‒10
two papers selected by
Elodie Busch, University of Strasbourg

Nat Commun. 2023 Dec 06. 14(1): 7844

T cell migration requires ion and water influx to regulate actin polymerization.

Leonard L de Boer, Lesley Vanes, Serena Melgrati, Joshua Biggs O'May, Darryl Hayward, Paul C Driscoll, Jason Day, Alexander Griffiths, Renata Magueta, Alexander Morrell, James I MacRae, Robert Köchl, Victor L J Tybulewicz.

Migration of T cells is essential for their ability to mount immune responses. Chemokine-induced T cell migration requires WNK1, a kinase that regulates ion influx into the cell. However, it is not known why ion entry is necessary for T cell movement. Here we show that signaling from the chemokine receptor CCR7 leads to activation of WNK1 and its downstream pathway at the leading edge of migrating CD4+ T cells, resulting in ion influx and water entry by osmosis. We propose that WNK1-induced water entry is required to swell the membrane at the leading edge, generating space into which actin filaments can polymerize, thereby facilitating forward movement of the cell. Given the broad expression of WNK1 pathway proteins, our study suggests that ion and water influx are likely to be essential for migration in many cell types, including leukocytes and metastatic tumor cells.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43423-8

bioRxiv. 2023 Nov 22. pii: 2023.11.21.567714. [Epub ahead of print]

CD56/NCAM mediates cell migration of human NK cells by promoting integrin-mediated adhesion turnover.

Amera L Martinez, Michael J Shannon, Tyler Sloan, Emily M Mace.

Natural killer (NK) cells patrol tissue to mediate lysis of virally infected and tumorigenic cells. Human NK cells are typically identified by their expression of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM, CD56), yet, despite its ubiquitous expression on NK cells, CD56 remains a poorly understand protein on immune cells. CD56 has been previously demonstrated to play roles in NK cell cytotoxic function and cell migration. Specifically, CD56-deficient NK cells have impaired cell migration on stromal cells and CD56 is localized to the uropod of NK cells migrating on stroma. Here, we show that CD56 is required for NK cell migration on ICAM-1 and is required for the establishment of persistent cell polarity and unidirectional actin flow. The intracellular domain of CD56 (NCAM-140) is required for its function, and the loss of CD56 leads to enlarged actin foci and sequestration of phosphorylated Pyk2, accompanied by increased size and frequency of activated LFA-1 clusters. Together, these data identify a role for CD56 in regulating human NK cell migration through modulation of actin dynamics and integrin turnover.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.21.567714