Authors:
Lisciandro, J. G.; Prescott, S. L.; Nadal-Sims, M. G.; Devitt, C. J.; Pomat, W.; Siba, P. M.; Tulic, M. C.; Holt, P. G.; Strickland, D.; van den Biggelaar, A. H. J.
Authors notes:
Keywords:
ontogeny, innate immune system, early life, Toll-like receptor (TLR), infants
Abstract
Studies addressing the ontogeny of the innate immune system in early life have reported mainly on Toll-like receptor (TLR) responses in infants living in high-income countries, with little or even no information on other pattern recognition receptors or on early life innate immune responses in children living under very different environmental conditions in less-developed parts of the world.
In this study, we describe whole blood innate immune responses to both Toll-like and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor agonists including the widely used vaccine adjuvant 'alum' in a group of Papua New Guinean infants aged 1-3 (n = 18), 4-6 (n = 18), 7-12 (n = 21) and 13-18 (n = 10) months old.
Depending on the ligands and cytokines studied, different age-related patterns were found: alum-induced IL-1β and CXCL8 responses were found to significantly decline with increasing age; inflammatory (IL-6, IL-1β, IFN-γ) responses to TLR2 and TLR3 agonists increased; and IL-10 responses remained constant or increased during infancy, while TNF-α responses either declined or remained the same.
We report for the first time that whole blood innate immune responses to the vaccine adjuvant alum decrease with age in infancy; a finding that may imply that the adjuvant effect of alum in pediatric vaccines could be age-related.
Our findings further suggest that patterns of innate immune development may vary between geographically diverse populations, which in line with the 'hygiene hypothesis' particularly involves persistence of innate IL-10 responses in populations experiencing higher infectious pressure.