Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States.
Front Immunol. 2022 Mar 17;13:826666. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.826666. eCollection 2022.
It is unknown whether RSV infection in infancy alters subsequent RSV immune responses.
In a nested cohort of healthy, term children, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected at ages 2-3 years to examine RSV memory T cell responses among children previously RSV infected during infancy (first year of life) compared to those RSV-uninfected during infancy. The presence . absence of infant RSV infection was determined through a combination of RSV molecular and serologic testing. Memory responses were measured in RSV stimulated PBMCs.
Compared to children not infected with RSV during the first year of life, children infected with RSV during infancy had lower memory T cell responses at ages 2-3 years to stimulation with RSV for most tested type-1 and type-17 markers for a number of memory T cell subsets.
RSV infection in infancy has long-term effects on memory T cell responses. This is the first study to show the potential for RSV infection in infancy to have long-term effects on the immune memory irrespective of the severity of the infection. Our results suggest a possible mechanism through which infant RSV infection may result in greater risk of subsequent childhood respiratory viral morbidity, findings also relevant to vaccine development.
婴幼儿 RSV 感染是否会改变随后的 RSV 免疫反应尚不清楚。
在一项健康足月儿童的嵌套队列研究中，在 2-3 岁时采集外周血单核细胞（PBMC），以比较婴幼儿期（生命的第一年）曾感染 RSV 的儿童与婴幼儿期未感染 RSV 的儿童之间的 RSV 记忆 T 细胞反应。通过 RSV 分子和血清学检测相结合来确定婴幼儿 RSV 感染的存在/不存在。使用 RSV 刺激 PBMC 来测量记忆反应。
与生命的第一年未感染 RSV 的儿童相比，婴幼儿期感染 RSV 的儿童在 2-3 岁时对 RSV 的刺激的记忆 T 细胞反应较低，大多数 1 型和 17 型标记物的记忆 T 细胞亚群均如此。
婴幼儿 RSV 感染对记忆 T 细胞反应有长期影响。这是第一项研究表明，婴幼儿 RSV 感染有可能对免疫记忆产生长期影响，而与感染的严重程度无关。我们的研究结果表明，婴幼儿 RSV 感染可能导致随后儿童呼吸道病毒发病率增加的潜在机制，这一发现也与疫苗开发有关。
