Publication in The Journal of Experimental Medicine
Antibody responses are a key element of adaptive immune responses and regulate the gut-liver axis. Johanna Kabbert, PhD student in CRC1382 project B06, reports in the Journal of Experimental Medicine that in the human gut, a system of affinity matured, microbiota cross-species reactive IgA antibodies dominates host-microbiota interactions. Microbiota binding and cross-species reactivity do not correlate with antibody polyreactivity, but crucially depend on somatic mutations. These results suggest that a system of affinity matured, microbiota cross-species reactive IgA is a common aspect of antibody-microbiota interactions and shed a new light on how antibodies regulate the microbiota.
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32640466/