Sorting nexin 5 deficiency impairs MHC class II antigen presentation and inflammatory responses during tuberculosis

Description

Dias and colleagues study sorting nexin 5, or SNX5, a protein that helps move cargo inside cells, and ask what it does in tuberculosis infection. Their 2026 study infects mice lacking the protein with a low dose of the tuberculosis bacterium through the air, then compares them with normal mice. The team also tests infected macrophages, the immune cells that swallow bacteria, in the lab to find where defense breaks down.

Mice without SNX5 died more often, though their lungs held the same number of bacteria as normal mice. Their lungs showed worse inflammation without shifts in which immune cells arrived. In macrophages, loss of SNX5 left bacterial killing intact. But it cut the breakdown of swallowed proteins and weakened MHC class II presentation, the display of bacterial pieces that wakes helper T cells. Helper cell activation fell, though the display molecules on the cell surface stayed normal in number.

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Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13450273