Antibody-mediated regulation of basophils: emerging views and clinical implications

Basophils are important for systemic and tissue immune defense against helminth infections and noxious environmental substances. They can participate in a wide spectrum of diseases beyond allergies, including infection, inflammation, and cancer.Antibodies regulate various aspects of basophil functions, thus enabling basophils to integrate adaptive signals with innate signals in immune defense or disease pathogenesis.Recent studies have revealed new mechanisms underlying antibody-mediated basophil regulation and have identified antibody-dependent basophil responses that are either protective or pathogenic in allergic and non-allergic diseases.Active or passive antibody-based therapies to stimulate protective basophil effector functions or mitigate pathogenic basophils responses may help in the management of diseases that significantly involve basophil. Basophils are important innate regulators of immune responses which can also contribute to the pathogenesis of various disorders including allergy, autoimmunity, inflammation, infection, and cancer. Basophil functions are shaped by antibodies, allowing basophils to integrate antigenic and environmental cues at the intersection of innate and adaptive immunity. Further knowledge of the mechanisms by which antibody classes achieve their effects might inform on new basophil-targeting therapeutic strategies to prevent and/or treat particular allergic and non-allergic disorders. An increasing number of human diseases, including allergies, infections, inflammation, and cancer, involve roles for basophils. Traditionally viewed as the rarest leukocytes that are present only in the circulation, basophils have recently emerged as important players in systemic as well as tissue-specific immune responses. Their functions are regulated by immunoglobulins (Igs), and this enables basophils to integrate diverse adaptive and innate immunity signals. IgE is well known to regulate basophil responses in the context of type 2 immunity and allergic inflammation; however, growing evidence shows that IgG, IgA, and IgD also shape specific aspects of basophil functions relevant to many human diseases. We discuss recent mechanistic advances underpinning antibody-mediated basophil responses and propose strategies for the treatment of basophil-associated disorders.