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Biomedicines
Special Issues
Immune Cell Plasticity in Malignancy and Autoimmunity: Mechanism and Implication
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Immune Cell Plasticity in Malignancy and Autoimmunity: Mechanism and Implication

A special issue of Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059). This special issue belongs to the section "Cell Biology and Pathology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 1069

Editors

Dr. Joanna Kosalka-Wegiel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland
Interests: autoimmunity; autoantibodies; systemic autoimmune diseases; immunodeficiencies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Aleksandra H. Opinc-Rosiak

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Rheumatology, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
Interests: allergy; treatment; immunology
Dr. Paweł Koźlik-Siwiec

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Internal Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland
Interests: systemic autoimmune diseases; hematology; mastocytosis
Dr. Radosław Dziedzic

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Doctoral School of Medical and Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland
Interests: rheumatology; thrombosis; cardiovascular system; endothelium dysfunction; oxidative stress; igra; lupus; systemic sclerosis; inflammatory myopathies; FMD; IMT; COVID-19

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Imbalance of the immune system—ranging from excessive activation of humoral and cellular immune responses to immune exhaustion and impaired immune surveillance—contributes to the development of autoimmune disorders and cancer progression. Quantitative and functional alterations of immune cell populations are central to disease pathogenesis and represent functional tools for diagnosis, monitoring, prognostic stratification, and therapeutic targeting.

In recent years, immunity has become of central importance to oncology and rheumatology, not only as a dysregulated system which can no longer prevent disease, but as a potent ally in the form of novel therapies, such as T-cell engagers and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cells. These new treatment modalities bring hope, questions, and unique challenges which will require close collaboration between basic and clinical sciences to optimize therapeutic potential and mitigate toxicities.

A deeper understanding of immune cell plasticity and the molecular mechanisms underlying immune dysregulation may improve insight into disease biology, support patient stratification, and assist in the development of personalized and precision medicine, including the identification of novel immune-based therapeutic strategies.

This Special Issue welcomes both basic and clinical research, including original articles and reviews, addressing immune cell plasticity; shared and disease-specific immune pathways; molecular mechanisms of immune dysregulation; immune biomarkers; and both conventional and innovative immunomodulatory and immunotherapeutic approaches in autoimmune diseases and cancer. 

Dr. Joanna Kosalka-Wegiel
Dr. Aleksandra H. Opinc-Rosiak
Dr. Paweł Koźlik-Siwiec
Dr. Radosław Dziedzic
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomedicines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • immune cell plasticity
  • autoimmune diseases
  • systemic autoimmunity
  • organ-specific autoimmunity
  • immune dysregulation
  • pathophysiology
  • molecular mechanisms
  • immune biomarkers
  • immunotherapy
  • targeted therapies

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 594 KB  
Article
Serum Levels of Selected Chemokines in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Correlate with Disease Activity and Clinical Features: Results from a Single-Center Observational Study
by Radosław Dziedzic, Andżelika Siwiec-Koźlik, Paweł Koźlik-Siwiec, Kazimierz Węglarczyk, Maciej Siedlar, Mariusz Korkosz and Joanna Kosałka-Węgiel
Biomedicines 2026, 14(3), 567; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines14030567 - 2 Mar 2026
Viewed by 747
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by fluctuating disease activity and multi-organ involvement. The identification of reliable biomarkers that accurately reflect disease activity remains a significant clinical challenge, particularly in predicting disease flares. Chemokines are key mediators [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by fluctuating disease activity and multi-organ involvement. The identification of reliable biomarkers that accurately reflect disease activity remains a significant clinical challenge, particularly in predicting disease flares. Chemokines are key mediators of immune cell recruitment and inflammation, making them promising candidates for disease activity monitoring. Therefore, we evaluated serum concentrations of CCL2, CCL4, CCL5, CXCL8, and CXCL10 and examined their associations with disease activity and clinical manifestations in patients with SLE. Patients and Methods: A total of 52 patients with SLE were enrolled in the study, of whom 15 (28.8%) had active disease (SLE Disease Activity Index [SLEDAI] ≥ 5) and 37 (71.2%) were in remission (SLEDAI < 5). An additional group of 12 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals without a family history of autoimmune diseases served as controls. All SLE patients fulfilled the 2019 EULAR/ACR classification criteria. Serum levels of the selected chemokines were measured in all participants using the Luminex Human Premixed Multi-Analyte Discovery Assay. Results: Serum concentrations of CCL2 and CCL4 did not differ between SLE patients and healthy controls, nor between active and inactive disease subgroups (p > 0.05, for all). In contrast, CCL5 levels were 34.30% higher in patients with SLE compared with controls (p = 0.013), with the strongest increase observed in the inactive disease subgroup as compared to controls (by 40.29%, p = 0.021). CXCL8 levels were markedly elevated in patients with active SLE relative to those in remission (by 123.30%, p = 0.011) and to healthy individuals (by 183.96%, p = 0.049). CXCL10 levels were higher in both active and inactive SLE groups compared with controls (increase of 180.80%, p < 0.001 and increase of 100.80%, p = 0.018, respectively). No differences in chemokine levels were detected between patients with renal flares and those with non-renal flares, nor among patients in remission with and without a history of lupus nephritis (p > 0.05, for all). CXCL8 and CXCL10 correlated positively with disease activity scores, inflammatory markers, and several immune parameters, indicating their relevance to ongoing inflammatory processes (p < 0.05, for all). CCL5 was associated with complement components C3 (rS = 0.36, p = 0.008) and C4 (rS = 0.38, p = 0.006), while CXCL10 showed negative correlations with white blood cell (rS = −0.34, p = 0.013), lymphocyte counts (rS = −0.36, p = 0.008) and neutrophils (rS = −0.32, p = 0.019). In the longitudinal follow-up of patients in remission (median follow-up time of 5.5 years), baseline chemokine levels did not predict subsequent disease flares among SLE patients who were inactive as the study baseline (p > 0.05, for all). Conclusions: In our study, serum levels of CXCL8 and CXCL10 reflect disease activity and systemic inflammation in SLE, supporting their potential value as biomarkers for monitoring ongoing immune activation. Baseline concentrations of the examined chemokines did not predict future disease flares, indicating their limited utility in this context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immune Cell Plasticity in Malignancy and Autoimmunity: Mechanism and Implication)
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