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This work was supported by National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship (to M.D.W.T.), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 AI00729037 (to K.F.N.) and NIH R01DK128292 (to M.R.H). Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.
Tuft cells are specialized taste-chemosensory cells that detect the presence of intestinal parasites and orchestrate type 2 immunity. In this issue of Immunity, McGinty et al. discover that parasitic worms, but not commensal protists, stimulate tuft cells to release cysteinyl leukotrienes to amplify anti-helminth immunity in the small intestine.
Trillions of microbes inhabit our guts, including worms and other parasites. Epithelial cells that line the gut orchestrate parasite-targeted immune responses. Howitt et al. now identify a key cellular player in immunity to parasites: tuft cells (see the Perspective by Harris). Tuft cells make up a small fraction of gut epithelial cells but expand when parasites colonize or infect the gut.
The intestinal epithelium forms an essential barrier separating host and microbiota. Protozoa and helminths are members of the gut microbiota of mammals, including humans; yet the many ways gut epithelial cells orchestrate responses to these Eukaryota remains unclear. Herein we show that tuft cells, taste-chemosensory epithelial cells, accumulate during parasite colonization and infection.
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