Factors influencing innate immunity and vaccine responses in infancy

Abstract

Despite significant progress in reducing the burden of mortality in children under the age of five, reducing mortality in newborns remains a major challenge. Infection plays a significant role in infant deaths and interventions such as early vaccination or antenatal immunization could make a significant contribution to prevention of such deaths. In the last fewyears, we have gained newinsights into immune ontogeny and are nowbeginning to understand the impact of vaccines, nutrition and environmental factors on ‘training0 of the immune response in early life. This review article sets out to explain why vaccine responses can be heterogeneous between populations and individuals by providing examples chosen to illustrate the impact of host, pathogen and environmental factors on shaping theimmune ‘interactome0 in young children.