Letter from the Editor 2016

This year’s thematic is the thirteenth of the Immunological Investigations’ thematic issues, and is entitled “Contribution of Tregs in Disease.” This issue was suggested by the editorial board last year. The articles in this year’s thematic include: Lymphocyte-mediated Immune Regulation in Health and Disease: The Treg and γδ T Cell Co-conspiracy (Payne, 2016); Peripheral and Intestinal T-regulatory Cells are Upregulated in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Onset of Disease (Sznurkowska et al., 2016); c-Rel is Required for the Induction of pTregs in the Eye but Not in the Gut Mucosa (Wang et al., 2016); Minireview: Regulatory T Cells and Ovarian Cancer (Singh et al., 2016); Tumor-associated Glycans and Tregs in Immunogenicity of an Autologous Cell-based Vaccine (Monzavi-Karbassi et al., 2016); Co-stimulate or Co-inhibit Regulatory T Cells, Which Side to Go? (Liu et al., 2016); Role of Tregs in Cancer Dormancy or Recurrence (Manjili and Butler, 2016); Regulatory T Cells and Cancer: A Two-Sided Story (Wang and Vella, 2016); Treg Cells in Cancer: Beyond Classical Immunological Control (Bos, 2016); and Ontogeny of Tumor-associated CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T-regulatory Cells (Li and Egilmez, 2016). This is a nice collection of Treg articles including cancer, autoimmunity, and mechanistic studies. This issue topic was chosen because of the increase in understanding of Tregs that has led researchers to have a renewed interest in their importance, a desire to further understand them mechanistically, and to attempt to manipulate these cells to benefit the patient. In addition, since 2014, other than the 10 articles in this thematic, 8 articles in Immunological Investigations have focused on Tregs, and these include: Imbalance of Different Types of CD4+Foxp3+ T Cells in Renal Transplant Recipients (Hu et al., 2014); Interaction of CD5 and CD72 is Involved in Regulatory T and B Cell Homeostasis (Zheng et al., 2014); CD4+CD25 high FOXP3+ Regulatory T Cells Correlate with FEV1 in North Indian Children with Cystic Fibrosis (Anil and Singh, 2014); and Sulfated Radix Cyathulae officinalis Polysaccharides Act as Adjuvant via Promoting the Dendritic Cell Maturation and Suppressing Treg Frequency (Feng et al., 2015).

Nejat Egilmez, a member of the editorial board and a contributing author to this thematic, recommended that Masoud H. Manjili be selected to be the guest editor of the Treg thematic, and he in turn selected Kyle K. Payne to be co-guest editor. They have both been a pleasure to work with for this Treg showcase in Immunological Investigations.

Masoud H. Manjili, D.V.M., Ph.D., is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Massey Cancer Center in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. His areas of expertise include cancer immunotherapy, breast cancer biomarkers, biology of tumor escape and relapse, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), and graft versus host disease (GVHD). He received his D.V.M. at Tehran University, his Ph.D. at the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, with Dr. Terry Rothwell, and his postdoctoral training with Dr. Soldano Ferrone and Dr. John Subjeck at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Among his recent awards are the Outstanding Departmental Teacher Award in Health Sciences Education, Outstanding Lecturer Award, Biology of Cancer (BIOL-450-901), 2014, 2010 VCU Annual Service Award, and 2013 VCU School of Medicine Featured Discoveries. He is currently the principle investigator on a DOD grant DOD Breast Cancer Breakthrough Award, entitled “Treatment-induced autophagy associated with tumor dormancy and relapse.” He has been on an impressive number of NIH, DOD, Department of Veterans Affairs and Susan B. Komen study sections. When you read his c.v. you see that Masoud generously spends time in service to our profession and to helping others succeed. He was a pleasure to work with on this thematic issue.

Masoud H. Manjili

Kyle K. Payne

Kyle K. Payne is the second guest editor, and he was selected by Masoud Manjili. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at The Wistar Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Jose Conejo-Garcia in the tumor microenvironment and metastasis program. He trained with Masoud Manjili for his doctorate in 2015 at VCU. During his doctoral studies he was a recipient of the American Association of Immunologists Careers in Immunology Fellowship for the years 2014 and 2015. At this early stage in his career he already has 21 full manuscript publications, and following in his mentor’s footsteps has already kindly taken on teaching and mentorship responsibilities.

I hope that you enjoy the 13th thematic, which coincides with my 13th anniversary as editor of Immunological Investigations. Certain milestones for Immunological Investigations are worth celebrating. This year our impact factor decreased slightly to 1.780 from 1.991 last year.

The top 10 articles contributing to the impact factor in 2015 and their number of citations are as follows:

Table

41 citations: The role of cytokines in inflammatory bone loss (Souza and Lerner, 2013)

19 citations: Disequilibrium of M1 and M2 macrophages correlates with the development of experimental inflammatory bowel diseases (Zhu et al., 2014)

16 citations: Role of TLR-2 and fungal surface antigens on innate immune response against Sporothrix schenckii (Negrini et al., 2013)

15 citations: Age-associated changes in microRNA expression in bone marrow derived dendritic cells (Park et al., 2013)

15 citations: Intracellular CTLA4 and regulatory T cells in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (Erfani et al., 2013)

15 citations: Visual sensor for the detection of trace Cu(II) ions using an immunochromatographic strip (Xing et al., 2013)

13 citations: Interaction of CD5 and CD72 is involved in regulatory T and B cell homeostasis (Zheng et al., 2014)

12 citations: IL-17 gene polymorphism is associated with chronic periodontitis and peri-implantitis in Iranian patients: A cross-sectional study (Kadkhodazadeh et al., 2013)

10 citations: Immunological studies of reactive oxygen species damaged catalase in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: Correlation with disease activity index (Al-Shobaili et al., 2013)

9 citations: Synergistic effects of atorvastatin and all-trans retinoic acid in ameliorating animal model of multiple sclerosis (Abtahi Froushani et al., 2014)

These are an eclectic mix of immunological articles, from immunoassays to pathologies caused by inflammation, to innate immunity, and autoimmunity and include two articles about regulatory T cells. This presence of 2 Treg articles in the top 10 from the last 2 years is another indication that this topic was a timely choice for this year’s thematic.

In terms of immediacy of impact, the top 10 downloaded articles of 2016 is a good indicator, and these top 10 articles include:

Active immunotherapy of cancer (Chodon et al., 2015) downloaded 585 times;

Immunotherapy for infectious diseases: Past, present, and future (Manohar et al., 2015) downloaded 276 times;

Immunotherapeutic approaches for the control and eradication of HIV (Amsterdam, 2015) downloaded 186 times;

Differential gene expression profiles reflecting macrophage polarization in aging and periodontitis gingival tissues (Gonzalez et al., 2015) downloaded 176 times;

Altered microRNA expression and immunosuppressive cytokine production by regulatory T cells of ulcerative colitis patients (Mohammadnia-Afrouzi et al., 2016) downloaded 148 times;

Short-chain fatty acids regulate cytokines and Th17/Treg cells in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro (Asarat et al., 2016) downloaded 147 times;

Prophylactic effect of BIO-1211 small-molecule antagonist of VLA-4 in the EAE mouse model of multiple sclerosis (Ramroodi et al., 2015) downloaded 144 times;

Immunology of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (Mosaad, 2014) downloaded 136 times;

Dexamethasone attenuates LPS-induced acute lung injury through inhibition of NF-κB, COX-2, and pro-inflammatory mediators (Al-Harbi et al., 2016) downloaded 133 times; and

Identification, isolation, and functional assay of regulatory T cells (Azimi et al., 2016) downloaded 133 times.

Of the top 10 downloads, 2 articles are also on Tregs, so again we anticipate that this issue is timely and will be oft-cited.

I would like to thank Dr. Ernesto DeNardin for helping in all problem areas as associate editor, and the editorial board for helping to review 217 papers in 2015 with ~32% acceptance rate.

I would like to thank the reviewer of the year, Dr. Stanley Schwartz, for reviewing four articles last year. A request to the editorial board, I understand that you may be too busy to review occasionally, but please suggest three or four others to do the review. So far this year Immunological Investigations has received 179 articles! For many articles I ask eight or more people before two agree. So please offer the services of those you know if you are too busy!