Summary
Maternal and early life vaccination protects young children from life threatening infections. However, the make-up of the antibodies providing this protection often has reduced ability to recognise the carbohydrate (CHO) components of bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella Typhimurium (STm)—a major cause of LMIC illness and death. Additionally, infants launch impaired responses to CHO antigen. Our project explores an innovative solution to this where maternal vaccination helps newborns generate their own effective immune responses against CHO antigens.
In preliminary experiments we vaccinated murine mothers with specific bacterial components. We discovered that their unvaccinated offspring produced their own antibodies against these components. These offspring also controlled infection and had more mature antibody producing B cells. This suggests offspring can produce antibody against a pathogen only their mother has experienced.
Professor William Horsnell
Professor
University of Exeter
UK
Collaborators:
Dr Alisha Chetty, MRC Africa Leader Research Fellow, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Professor Adam Cunningham, Professor, University of Birmingham, UK