We have found that autophagy plays a critical role in the long-term survival of memory B cells against virus infection. In autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, the harmful T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes may activate autophagy and other mechanisms in order to persist in the disease process. We are investigating whether autophagy help to protect the long-term survival of autoimmune memory T cell and memory B cells for the development of autoimmune diseases, and whether autophagy deficiency suppress autoimmune and inflammatory responses.

Mitochondrial autophagy in the regulation of immune responses.

We have previously shown that a Bcl-2 family member, Nix, is critical for the regulation of mitochondrial autophagy during erythroid cell development. However, the mechanisms for Nix in mediated mitochondrial autophagy and its functions in immune responses remain to be elucidated. We identified Nix-interacting proteins by mass spectrometry analyses. We are using the CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting to delete genes encoding these proteins in cell lines and in mice. We will investigate the functions of these novel Nix-interacting proteins in the regulation of mitochondrial autophagy in immune memory cells.