Zeitschrift für Infektionskrankheiten und Therapie

Abstrakt

Immunostimulation Pathways of Extracellular Nucleosomes

Huawei Wang, Chuanzheng Zhou

Circulating nucleosomes released from dying or damaged cells have been observed to be associated with in-flammation and autoimmune diseases, indicating that extracellular nucleosomes have immunostimulation. Early studies have demonstrated that extracellular nucleosomes can induce immune responses in a TLR9-dependent mechanism. A very recent study reported that extracellular nucleosomes can be taken up by mammalian cells. After cellular uptake, nucleosomes bind and activate cGAS in the cytoplasm, inducing the expression and secre-tion of type I interferons and proinflammatory cytokines. Thus, the cGAS-dependent mechanism represents a new pathway for the immunostimulation of extracellular nucleosomes.