New Paper: Bacterial targeting of the neutrophil inhibitory receptor LILRB3 to evade antibody immunity

Research led by Matevz Rumpret (Postdoc) and Alexander Lewis Marffy (PhD), together with Brian Geisbrecht lab (Kansas State University), has been published in June 2025 in Nature Communications. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42277001/

Big congratulations to everyone involved!

Bacteria are known to interact with human inhibitory receptors. Yet, the mechanisms of interaction and function of these interactions remain poorly understood. Here, we asked whether bacteria target inhibitory receptors to evade antibody- and Fc receptor-mediated responses of human neutrophils.

In this paper, we

• found that Group B Streptococcus (GBS) binds to the inhibitory LILRB3 receptor

• identified that the interaction occured via the surface protein of GBS called β protein

• defined the mechanism of interaction at high-resolution

• showed that these interactions promoted evasion of neutrophil activation and phagocytic killing.

This demonstrates that targeting inhibitory receptors provides a mechanism for bacteria to subvert antibody-driven immune responeses.

Rumpret M, Lewis Marffy AL, Zhang Y, van Woudenbergh E, van der Lans SPA, Xu X, Fu Z, Zhao Y, Catton EA, Paré G, McGregor F, Spiller OB, Fernandes MJ, de Haas CJC, van Strijp JAG, van Sorge NM, Geisbrecht BV, McCarthy AJ. Nat Commun. 2026 Jun 11. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-74098-6.