Abstract
The immaturity of the neonatal immune system places infants at an increased risk of
infections and also affects the effective induction of protective immune responses by
vaccines. In utero sensitisation to infectious pathogens results in immune activation
and can establish immunological memory and may influence the immune response to
unrelated antigens. In this study, we investigated in early life (birth to 6-10 weeks) the
development of interferon-gamma (IFN-g) responses in uninfected infants born to
HIV-1 infected mothers (exposed uninfected (EU) infants).
Whole blood cell cultures stimulated with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) or
Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) showed that EU infants have a
greater ability to produce IFN-g in response to PHA and BCG at birth compared to
control infants (born to HIV-1 uninfected mothers). However, by six weeks of age
control infants produced significantly more IFN-g in response to PHA only. These
results suggest that responses amongst EU infants establish and mature earlier than
in control infants. In fact, over time a greater number of EU infants have a reduced
ability or an inability to respond to stimuli such as PHA or BCG compared to control
infants (when comparing responses at six weeks of age to responses of the matched
birth samples). Full blood counts (FBC) counts were carried out using an automated AcT 5 diff
haematology analyser which measures proportions and absolute counts of the five
groups of white blood cells, namely, lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils,
eosinophils and basophils. Importantly, there were no significant differences in the
absolute lymphocyte counts of control infants and EU infants either at birth or at six
weeks which could account for the IFN-g production differences noted between these
infant groups, although the EU infants did exhibit a trend of higher absolute
lymphocyte counts at six weeks than control infants. Age-dependent maturational
changes in cell counts were observed in both control and EU infant groups, with
neutrophils predominating at birth and lymphocytes predominating by six weeks,
indicative of immune development with age in both infant groups. Short-course
antiretroviral exposure increased basophil counts of infants at birth but did not affect
counts by six weeks.
Flow Cytometry studies using an Intracellular Cytokine (ICC) assay were conducted
to establish which mononuclear cell types are predominantly responsible for
producing IFN-g in infants. ICC assays done on whole blood revealed that natural
killer cells (NK) were predominantly responsible for the IFN-g produced by 10 week
old EU infants, and also at birth (control and EU infants). At birth whole blood
cultures of 48% of EU infants already showed BCG-induced IFN-g responses (prior to
BCG vaccination); this could be explained by a non-specific response (NK cells) to
the antigen but could also involve T cell responses (CD4+ and/or CD8+ T cells) as supported by ICC data obtained from control and EU newborn infants. The infant
immune system was clearly unique from that of their mothers. In particular, mothers’
demonstrated significant changes in blood counts from labour to six weeks
postpartum indicative that immuno-modulation plays an essential role in a successful
pregnancy. The single dose of nevirapine (sdNVP) taken by the mother at the onset
of labour did not influence maternal blood counts significantly and maternal CD4+ and
CD8+ T cells, and NK cells produced significantly more IFN-g than the CD14+
monocytes and CD19+ B cells, with CD8+ T cells producing the most.
Our results have shown that EU infants are distinct from control infants with respect
to immunological responses as measured by IFN-g production, and that maturational
differences do exist between control and HIV-1 exposed infants. While the clinical
importance of these results remains undetermined it is important to establish whether
such immunological changes may result in altered susceptibility to infectious
diseases in this already vulnerable population, and how this may impact on the
induction of protective immune responses by vaccines. It remains important to
identify neonatal immune system deficiencies and understand the consequences of
exposure to maternal HIV-1 (in the absence of acquiring HIV-1 infection), the
understanding of which could contribute to the development of more effective
vaccines to HIV-1 and other infectious diseases.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/5845 |
| Date | 25 November 2008 |
| Creators | Anthony, Fiona Sharon |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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