Infant immune system stronger than adult immune system: Study

According to a new study, the infant immune system is much stronger than thought and beats the adult immune system at fighting off new pathogens.

The research has been published in the 'Science Immunology Journal'. The infant immune system has a reputation for being weak and underdeveloped when compared to an adult, but the comparison isn't quite fair, said Donna Farber, PhD, professor of microbiology & immunology and the George H. Humphreys II Professor of Surgical Sciences at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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Babies do get a lot of respiratory illnesses from viruses, like influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, compared to adults. But unlike adults, babies are seeing these viruses for the first time.

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"Adults don't get sick as often because we've recorded memories of these viruses that protect us, whereas everything the baby encounters is new to them," Farber said.

In the new study, Farber and colleagues levelled the playing field and only tested the immune system's ability to respond to a new pathogen, essentially eliminating any contribution from immunological memories.

For the head-to-head comparison, the researchers collected naive T cells--immune cells that have never encountered a pathogen--from both infant and adult mice. The cells were placed into an adult mouse infected with a virus.

In the competition to eradicate the virus, the infant T cells won handily: naive T cells from infant mice detected lower levels of the virus than adult cells and the infant cells proliferated faster and travelled in greater numbers to the site of infection, rapidly building a strong defence against the virus. A laboratory comparison found similar enhancements among human infants compared to adult T cells.

-PTC News