Abstract
Esther Ndungo works in the field of maternal-infant immunity against enteric pathogens. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how the paper "Fc glycan-mediated regulation of placental antibody transfer" by Jennewein et al. (M. F. Jennewein, I. Goldfarb, S. Dolatshahi, C. Cosgrove, et al., Cell 178:202-215.e14, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.044) impressed upon her the value of thinking "outside the box" and looking to nature to guide her research.
Highlights
The neonatal stage, during which the immune system is developing, leaves the infant vulnerable to infectious threats
Commentary antibodies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza virus, and measles virus, consistent with a broad, as opposed to antigen-specific, mechanism
These results were corroborated by Martinez et al, who reported a preference for Fc␥IIa and Fc␥IIIa binding in cord blood (3)
Summary
The neonatal stage, during which the immune system is developing, leaves the infant vulnerable to infectious threats. KEYWORDS antibody profiles, enteric pathogens, maternal-infant immunity, systems serology Jennewein et al (2) tackled this question by performing a systems serology analysis of antibodies in maternal and cord blood pairs to identify functional and structural features of vaccine-induced antibodies “sieved” by the placenta.
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