Volume 30, No 7, Jul 2020

ISSN: 1001-0602 
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018 
impact factor 17.848* 
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)

Volume 30 Issue 7, July 2020: 558-559

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Secret(ory) revealed: the long-awaited structures of secretory IgA

Andrew B. Herr^1,2,*

¹Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
²Divisions of Immunobiology & Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
Correspondence: Andrew B. Herr(andrew.herr@cchmc.org)

Secretory IgA (SIgA) is a specialized form of antibody present at high concentrations in mucosal secretions, where it acts as the first line of defense of the immune system. In a recent paper published in Cell Research, Wang et al. present cryo-EM structures revealing the architecture of SIgA and its interactions with SpsA, a pneumococcal adhesin that piggybacks on SIgA to facilitate gut colonization and host cell invasion by Streptococcus pneumoniae.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-020-0351-4

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