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Research
Protection against neonatal respiratory viral infection via maternal treatment during pregnancy with the benign immune training agent OM-85Incomplete maturation of immune regulatory functions at birth is antecedent to the heightened risk for severe respiratory infections during infancy. Our forerunner animal model studies demonstrated that maternal treatment with the microbial-derived immune training agent OM-85 during pregnancy promotes accelerated postnatal maturation of mechanisms that regulate inflammatory processes in the offspring airways.
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Allergen shedding in human milk: Could it be key for immune system education and allergy prevention?In addition to being a source of nutrients for the developing newborn, human milk contains thousands of bioactive compounds, which influence infant health in the short-term as exemplified by its major benefits on infectious disease prevention. Many of the human milk compounds also have the required characteristics to instruct immune development and guide long-term health.
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Transplacental Innate Immune Training via Maternal Microbial Exposure: Role of XBP1-ERN1 Axis in Dendritic Cell Precursor ProgrammingWe 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.
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Virus infection and allergy in the development of asthma: What is the connection?Information is accumulating which implicates airway inflammation resulting from respiratory viral infections, acting against a background of atopy.
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Neonatal antigen-presenting cells are functionally more quiescent in children born under traditional compared with modern environmental conditionsOne explanation for the high burden of allergic and autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries is inappropriate immune development under modern...
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Attenuation of maternal inflammatory responses during pregnancy to promote normal immune and behavioral outcomes in the offspringThis study will identify how the immune system contributes to neurodevelopmental outcomes and will investigate the use of an agent from traditional medicines.
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Long-term derangement of antigen presenting cell populations in the respiratory tract following Influenza A infectionThis project investigates how different populations of cells within the respiratory tract immune system are altered during a viral infection.
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Neonatal sepsis: a systematic review of core outcomes from randomised clinical trialsThe lack of a consensus definition of neonatal sepsis and a core outcome set proves a substantial impediment to research that influences policy and practice relevant to key stakeholders, patients and parents.
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Egg-sensitised infants have elevated CD4+ effector memory T regulatory cells from birthIgE-mediated sensitisation to egg is common in infants. In some cases, the processes leading to egg sensitisation are established in early life, even before introduction to solid foods. The underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood.
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Immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and IgE-mediated immune responses of a mixed whole-cell and acellular pertussis vaccine schedule in Australian infants: A randomised, double-blind, noninferiority trialIn many countries, infant vaccination with acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines has replaced use of more reactogenic whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccines. Based on immunological and epidemiological evidence, we hypothesised that substituting the first aP dose in the routine vaccination schedule with wP vaccine might protect against IgE-mediated food allergy. We aimed to compare reactogenicity, immunogenicity, and IgE-mediated responses of a mixed wP/aP primary schedule versus the standard aP-only schedule.