Dynamic molecular changes during the first week of human life follow a robust developmental trajectory.

Systems biology can unravel complex biology but has not been extensively applied to human newborns, a group highly vulnerable to a wide range of diseases. We optimized methods to extract transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, cytokine/chemokine, and single cell immune phenotyping data from <1 ml of blood, a volume readily obtained from newborns. Indexing to baseline and applying innovative integrative computational methods reveals dramatic changes along a remarkably stable developmental trajectory over the first week of life.

Negative Correlation between Circulating CD4FOXP3CD127 Regulatory T Cells and Subsequent Antibody Responses to Infant Measles Vaccine but Not Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis Vaccine Implies a Regulatory Role.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a key homeostatic role by suppressing immune responses. They have been targeted in mouse and human cancer studies to improve vaccine immunogenicity and tumor clearance. A number of commercially available drugs and experimental vaccine adjuvants have been shown to target Tregs.

Heterologous and sex differential effects of administering vitamin A supplementation with vaccines.

WHO recommends high-dose vitamin A supplementation (VAS) to children from 6 months to 5 years of age in low-income countries, in order to prevent and treat vitamin A deficiency-associated morbidity and mortality. The current policy does not discriminate this recommendation either by sex or vaccination status of the child. There is accumulating evidence that the effects of VAS on morbidity, mortality and immunological parameters depend on concomitant vaccination status.

Targeting regulatory T cells to improve vaccine immunogenicity in early life.

Human newborns and infants are bombarded with multiple pathogens on leaving the sterile intra-uterine environment, and yet have suboptimal innate immunity and limited immunological memory, thus leading to increased susceptibility to infections in early life. They are thus the target age group for a host of vaccines against common bacterial and viral pathogens. They are also the target group for many vaccines in development, including those against tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and HIV infection.

Haematological and biochemical reference values of Gambian infants.

Objective: To establish haematological and biological reference values for Gambian infants.

Methods: Basic haematological and biochemical indices were analysed in blood samples obtained from healthy infants from Sukuta in the Western Division of The Gambia. The 2.

A phase I randomized clinical trial of candidate human immunodeficiency virus type 1 vaccine MVA.HIVA administered to Gambian infants.

Background: A vaccine to decrease transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) during breast-feeding would complement efforts to eliminate infant HIV-1 infection by antiretroviral therapy. Relative to adults, infants have distinct immune development, potentially high-risk of transmission when exposed to HIV-1 and rapid progression to AIDS when infected. To date, there have been only three published HIV-1 vaccine trials in infants.