Iron nutrition and COVID-19 among Nigerian healthcare workers.

Background And Objectives: The optimal iron hypothesis (OIH) posits that risk for infection is lowest at a mild level of iron deficiency. The extent to which this protection results from arms race dynamics in the evolution of iron acquisition and sequestration mechanisms is unclear. We evaluated the OIH with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), an emerging infectious agent.

Maternal and infant predictors of proinflammatory milk immune activity in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

Objectives: The immune system of milk (ISOM) creates a mother-infant immune axis that plays an important role in protecting infants against infectious disease (ID). Tradeoffs in the immune system suggest the potential for both protection and harm, so we conceive of two dimensions via which the ISOM impacts infants: promotion of protective activity and control of activity directed at benign targets. High variability in ISOM activity across mother-infant dyads suggests investment the ISOM may have evolved to be sensitive to maternal and/or infant characteristics.

Does the immune system of milk increase activity for infants experiencing infectious disease episodes in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania?

Introduction: Multiple studies have reported that milk immune content increases for infants experiencing infectious disease (ID) episodes, suggesting that the immune system of milk (ISOM) offers enhanced protection when needed to combat ID.

Methods: To test the hypothesis that ISOM content and/or activity increases during an infant's ID episode, we characterized milk secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA; a major ISOM constituent) and in vitro interleukin-6 (IL-6) responses to Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli, as system-level biomarkers of ISOM activity, in a prospective study among 96 mother-infant dyads in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

Results: After control for covariates, no milk immune variables (sIgA, Coef: 0.

Tradeoffs in milk immunity affect infant infectious disease risk.

Background And Objectives: The human immune system has evolved to balance protection against infection with control of immune-mediated damage and tolerance of commensal microbes. Such tradeoffs between protection and harm almost certainly extend to the immune system of milk.

Methodology: Among breastfeeding mother-infant dyads in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, we characterized proinflammatory milk immune responses to (an infectious agent) and (a benign target) as the increase in interleukin-6 after 24 h of incubation with each bacterium.