Decoding Immune Heterogeneity: Therapeutic Responses and Resistance in Diverse Cellular Landscapes

The field of immunopharmacology is progressively uncovering how the diverse makeup of immune cell populations significantly impacts therapeutic outcomes. Recent advancements in single-cell analytics have revealed new layers of complexity within traditional immune cell categories, such as T cells with their CD4+ and CD8+ lineages, and functional subsets spanning from Th1 to Th17, Treg, TCM, TEM, and TSCM. Similarly, B cells exhibit diversity through plasma, memory, regulatory, follicular cells, and various transitional states. Innate immune populations, including NK cells, dendritic cells, and macrophages, also present unique functional states and pharmacological response profiles. These revelations highlight the inadequacy of traditional bulk analyses and simple classifications to grasp the intricate response patterns of these cells to therapeutic agents.

This Research Topic aims to systematically delve into the molecular processes responsible for distinct pharmacological responses across various immune cell subsets. It will investigate how therapeutic agents alter the distribution, functional characteristics, and interaction dynamics of these subsets within complex immune environments. The objective is to advance precise methods for immune cell subset selection that enhance therapeutic efficacy while reducing negative side effects. By integrating multidisciplinary methodologies like single-cell multi-omics, spatial profiling, computational modeling, and sophisticated in vivo systems, this research aims to develop predictive models that translate the pharmacological effects on individual immune cell subsets into comprehensive system-level immunological outcomes, with the ultimate goal of expediting the development of highly targeted and efficient immunomodulatory treatments.

The scope of this Research Topic encompasses exploring the boundaries and limitations of pharmacological interactions with immune cell subsets. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Differential responses of lymphocyte subsets (T, B, and NK cell populations) to immunomodulatory agents
• Pharmacological targeting of specific immune cell states and differentiation trajectories
• Single-cell approaches for immune subset pharmacological profiling
• Computational methods for modeling drug effects on immune population dynamics
• Mechanisms of subset-specific therapeutic resistance
• Novel delivery systems for targeting specific immune cell subpopulations
• Biomarkers of immune cell subset-specific drug responses
• Tissue microenvironment influences on immune subset pharmacology
• Drug-induced remodeling of immunological memory formation
• Impact of combination therapies on immune cell subset repertoires

This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, reviews, methods papers, and perspective pieces that advance our understanding of pharmacological interactions with immune cell subsets.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Immune cell subset heterogeneity, Single-cell pharmacogenomics, Immunopharmacological profiling, Subset-directed drug delivery, Computational immunopharmacology, Checkpoint inhibitor subset, pharmacology Immunological memory, pharmacology

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.