The neuropeptide neuromedin U stimulates innate lymphoid cells and type 2 inflammation

Intestinal type 2 innate lymphoid cells express the neuropeptide receptor NMUR1, which makes them responsive to neuronal neuromedin U, thereby promoting a type 2 cytokine response and accelerated expulsion of the gastro-intestinal nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) are entangled with cholinergic SNAP-25-expressing neurons. David Artis and colleagues report that ILC2s express the neuropeptide receptor NMUR1, making them responsive to neuronal neuromedin. In mice, this promoted a tissue-protective type 2 response and accelerated expulsion of the gastrointestinal nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. Elsewhere in this issue, Henrique Veiga-Fernandes and colleagues also provide evidence that ILC2s express Nmur1 and respond to neuromedin expressed by adjacent enteric neurons. In mice, the interaction results in an enhanced and immediate response of ILC2s to infection by the parasite N. brasiliensis. The type 2 cytokines interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13 have important roles in stimulating innate and adaptive immune responses that are required for resistance to helminth infection, promotion of allergic inflammation, metabolic homeostasis and tissue repair1,2,3. Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) produce type 2 cytokines, and although advances have been made in understanding the cytokine milieu that promotes ILC2 responses4,5,6,7,8,9, how ILC2 responses are regulated by other stimuli remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that ILC2s in the mouse gastrointestinal tract co-localize with cholinergic neurons that express the neuropeptide neuromedin U (NMU)10,11. In contrast to other haematopoietic cells, ILC2s selectively express the NMU receptor 1 (NMUR1). In vitro stimulation of ILC2s with NMU induced rapid cell activation, proliferation, and secretion of the type 2 cytokines IL-5, IL-9 and IL-13 that was dependent on cell-intrinsic expression of NMUR1 and Gαq protein. In vivo administration of NMU triggered potent type 2 cytokine responses characterized by ILC2 activation, proliferation and eosinophil recruitment that was associated with accelerated expulsion of the gastrointestinal nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis or induction of lung inflammation. Conversely, worm burden was higher in Nmur1−/− mice than in control mice. Furthermore, use of gene-deficient mice and adoptive cell transfer experiments revealed that ILC2s were necessary and sufficient to mount NMU-elicited type 2 cytokine responses. Together, these data indicate that the NMU–NMUR1 neuronal signalling circuit provides a selective mechanism through which the enteric nervous system and innate immune system integrate to promote rapid type 2 cytokine responses that can induce anti-microbial, inflammatory and tissue-protective type 2 responses at mucosal sites.