A new approach for deciphering complex immune responses

The response to infection is highly variable from one individual to another. The Milieu Intérieur consortium, coordinated by Prof. Matthew Albert (Immunobiology of dendritic cells Unit, Institut Pasteur / Inserm) and Dr Lluis Quintana-Murci (Human Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Institut Pasteur / CNRS) seeks to establish the parameters that characterize the immune system of healthy individuals and its natural variability. In a study just published (August 25th) in Cell Reports, the researchers describe a new approach for analyzing the inflammatory response at the gene expression level in blood samples from healthy individuals, which reproduces the conditions of in vivo stimulation.
 
The striking result from this study is that the immune response to complex stimuli such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi could be defined and distinguished based on a small number of genes that were induced by 4 key immune proteins or cytokines. In particular as few as fourty-four genes, that were identified by machine learning techniques, could explain the variance present within such diverse immune responses.

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