B cell imprinting in children impairs antibodies to the haemagglutinin stalk - PubMed
12 hours ago
- #immune response
- #B cell imprinting
- #influenza
- B cell imprinting in children impairs antibodies to the haemagglutinin stalk.
- Immune imprinting causes the immune system to recall its initial response to a related pathogen after subsequent exposure.
- Children's B cell responses to influenza A viruses were studied after consecutive infections with H1N1 and H3N2 strains.
- Adult B cells showed homosubtypic imprinting, using stereotyped and mutated immunoglobulin genes.
- In children, up to 6% of memory B cells were H1/H3 cross-reactive, binding to the conserved central stalk epitope.
- Over 90% of these B cells had higher affinity for the imprinting H3N2 strain, reducing breadth and neutralization potency against H1N1.
- A residue change (D46N) in the stalk epitope was central to the shift in reactivity.
- Imprinting by influenza viruses can cause a deleterious shift in the memory recall response against conserved epitopes.