Despite having an overactive immune system, people with lupus may still struggle to fight bacterial infections. My team and I found that this paradox may be because chronic inflammation pushes their immune cells toward the wrong kind of response.
To understand why an overactive immune system can still fail to control bacterial infection, we focused on neutrophils, which are white blood cells that are among the first to respond when bacteria enter the body. Neutrophils can release webs of DNA and antimicrobial proteins called neutrophil extracellular traps, or NETs, that can trap bacteria, limiting their spread and killing them.
