CAR T cells have transformed the treatment of some haematological cancers. This Perspective explores how insights into T cell receptor signalling have enabled the engineering of CAR formats that can outcompete currently approved CARs in preclinical models and clinical trials.

This Perspective considers present and historical paradigms of therapeutic cancer vaccines and describes a conceptual framework, termed Vax-Innate, to simultaneously generate robust tumour-specific T cell responses and remodel the suppressive tumour microenvironment (TME). The authors detail how this strategy could be achieved through systemic vaccination and by using immune modulators to improve dendritic cell and macrophage function in the TME.

This Review provides an overview of arginine and arginase function in immune cells, at the steady state and during disease. It considers the relevance of this pathway for metabolic, immune and genetic regulation, together with possible therapeutic interventions.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) can sense and initiate immune responses to many different infectious organisms. Here, Moura-Alves and colleagues review the role of the AHR in host–pathogen interactions and explore the therapeutic potential of targeting the AHR in the context of different infectious diseases.