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Published on: August 7, 2017
Respiratory Infection- and Asthma-prone, Low Vaccine Responder Children Demonstrate Distinct Mononuclear Cell DNA
David Martino1, Nikki Schultz1, Ravinder Kaur2
1University of Western Australia.
Insights
Infants prone to respiratory infections show impaired immunity and are at risk for chronic respiratory diseases. Epigenetic profiling identified molecular pathways for early detection and immune modulation in these children.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Epigenetics
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Infants with frequent respiratory infections exhibit compromised immunity and are prone to chronic respiratory diseases.
- These infants often display low vaccine responsiveness (LVR).
Conclusions:
- Establishes a foundation for precision endotyping of IAP children.
- Highlights potential for immune modulation strategies using adjuvants in future research.
Background:
Infants with frequent viral and bacterial respiratory infections exhibit compromised immunity to routine immunisations. They are also more likely to develop chronic respiratory diseases in later childhood. This study investigated the feasibility of epigenetic profiling to reveal endotype-specific molecular pathways with potential for early identification and immuno-modulation. Peripharal immune cells from respiratory infection allergy/asthma prone (IAP) infants were retrospectively selected for genome-wide DNA methylation and single nucleotide polymorphism analysis. The IAP infants were enriched for the low vaccine responsiveness (LVR) phenotype (Fishers Exact p-value = 0.01).
Results:
An endotype signature of 813 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) comprising 238 lead CpG associations (FDR < 0.05) emerged, implicating pathways related to asthma, mucin production, antigen presentation and inflammasome activation. Allelic variation explained only a minor portion of this signature. Stimulation of mononuclear cells with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA), a TLR agonist, partially reversing this signature at a subset of CpGs, suggesting the potential for epigenetic remodelling.
Conclusions:
This proof-of-concept study establishes a foundation for precision endotyping of IAP children and highlights the potential for immune modulation strategies using adjuvants for furture investigation.
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