On October 16th, Pedro Moura-Alves and Palmira Barreira-Silva, together with their collaborators Stefan H. E. Kaufmann and Yilong Lian published a review article in the highly prestigious journal Nature Reviews Immunology.
Even though the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AHR) was originally identified as a receptor that binds xenobiotics, it was subsequently found to have a critical role in numerous biological processes, including immunity and inflammation. In 2014, Pedro Moura-Alves and Stefan H. E. Kaufmann proposed the AHR as a novel pattern recognition receptor, based on the finding that the AHR can be directly or indirectly modulated by molecules produced by various microorganisms. The field of AHR in the context of infection and immunity has evolved and matured during the past years, and the authors felt that “a review of the literature on microbial-derived AHR ligands, and AHR-elicited responses against different infections was missing”.
A team effort between two i3S researchers Palmira Barreira-Silva and Pedro Moura-Alves, and their collaborators resulted in this review article published in Nature Reviews Immunology, encompassing the current understanding of AHR’s roles in bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral infections, as well as the potential of targeting the AHR for host-directed therapies against infection.
In this review, the authors also raise three important points: 1) the AHR research field needs standardization of the definition of an AHR ligand; 2) systematic studies are needed to expedite our understanding of the roles of the AHR in infection, taking into account that both microbial and endogenous AHR ligands may be present at the infection site; and 3) during therapy one should keep in mind that the AHR can be modulated by therapeutic drugs and also modulate drug efficacy. Additionally, the authors note that many studies use exogenous ligands to modulate the AHR during infection, however, caution is needed as the outcome of that modulation varies according to the experimental context (including infectious agent, host model, infection route, among others).
According to the authors, “This review is both timely and highly relevant to the Immunology community studying host-microbe interactions, given the growing number of studies exploring the interplay between AHR and infection”.
