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Early aberrant antibody responses, aeroallergen sensitised people, subclinical bacterial infection
Impaired interferon response and allergic sensitization may contribute to virus-induced wheeze and asthma development in young children. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells play a key role in antiviral immunity as critical producers of type I interferons.
Human perinatal life is characterized by a period of extraordinary change during which newborns encounter abundant environmental stimuli and exposure to potential pathogens. To meet such challenges, the neonatal immune system is equipped with unique functional characteristics that adapt to changing conditions as development progresses across the early years of life, but the molecular characteristics of such adaptations remain poorly understood.
Poor maternal diet during pregnancy is a risk factor for severe lower respiratory infections in the offspring, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that in mice a maternal low-fiber diet led to enhanced LRI severity in infants because of delayed plasmacytoid dendritic cell recruitment and perturbation of regulatory T cell expansion in the lungs.
Asthma exacerbations in children are associated with respiratory viral infection and atopy, resulting in systemic immune activation and infiltration of immune cells into the airways. The gene networks driving the immune activation and subsequent migration of immune cells into the airways remains incompletely understood. Cellular and molecular profiling of PBMC was employed on paired samples obtained from atopic asthmatic children during acute virus-associated exacerbations and later during convalescence.
Researchers at The Kids Research Institute Australia have found children with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to develop asthma.
Honorary Emeritus Fellow; Scientific Reviewer - Animal Ethics
Epidemiologic associations between viral lower respiratory infections (LRIs) and asthma in later childhood are well known
There is increasing evidence that the functional state of the immune system at birth is predictive of the kinetics of immune maturation in early infancy.
Atopy and asthma are commonly initiated during early life, and there is increasing interest in the development of preventive treatments for at-risk children.