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The developing immune system and allergy

Early aberrant antibody responses, aeroallergen sensitised people, subclinical bacterial infection

Combination vaccines containing whole-cell pertussis antigens were phased out from the Australian national immunisation programme between 1997 and 1999 and replaced by the less reactogenic acellular pertussis (aP) antigens. In a large case-control study of Australian children born during the transition period, those with allergist diagnosed IgE-mediated food allergy were less likely to have received whole-cell vaccine in early infancy than matched population controls (OR: 0.77 (95% CI, 0.62 to 0.95)). We hypothesise that a single dose of whole-cell vaccine in early infancy is protective against IgE-mediated food allergy.

We recently reported that offspring of mice treated during pregnancy with the microbial-derived immunomodulator OM-85 manifest striking resistance to allergic airways inflammation, and localized the potential treatment target to fetal conventional dendritic cell (cDC) progenitors. Here, we profile maternal OM-85 treatment-associated transcriptomic signatures in fetal bone marrow, and identify a series of immunometabolic pathways which provide essential metabolites for accelerated myelopoiesis.

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.

Previous analyses of family data from the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study provide evidence that this phenotype has a stronger genetic cause than asthma...

The epidemic increase in the prevalence of allergic disease, which first started in the industrialized countries in the 1960s, may have reached a peak in the...

Using prospective data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, we investigated vitamin D status and predictors of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin...

There is evidence to suggest an association between prenatal maternal stress and the development of asthma or other atopic diseases in offspring.

In the longest reported follow-up of infants who received aP vaccine at birth, we found a trend to lower PT IgG antibodies post booster compared with receipt...