Bifidobacteria shape antimicrobial T-helper cell responses during infancy and adulthood

Katrin Vogel, Aditya Arra, Holger Lingel, Dirk Bretschneider, Florian Prätsch, Denny Schanze, Martin Zenker, Silke Balk, Dunja Bruder, Robert Geffers, Thomas Hachenberg, Christoph Arens and Monika C. Brunner-Weinzierl ()
Additional contact information
Katrin Vogel: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University
Aditya Arra: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University
Holger Lingel: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University
Dirk Bretschneider: Hospital St Marienstift
Florian Prätsch: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke-University
Denny Schanze: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University
Martin Zenker: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University
Silke Balk: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University
Dunja Bruder: Health Campus Immunology, Infectiology and Inflammation, Otto-von-Guericke University
Robert Geffers: Genome Analytics, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Thomas Hachenberg: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke-University
Christoph Arens: Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University
Monika C. Brunner-Weinzierl: University Hospital, Otto-von-Guericke University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Microbial infections early in life are challenging for the unexperienced immune system. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic again has highlighted that neonatal, infant, child, and adult T-helper(Th)-cells respond differently to infections, and requires further understanding. This study investigates anti-bacterial T-cell responses against Staphylococcus aureus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Bifidobacterium longum infantis in early stages of life and adults and shows age and pathogen-dependent mechanisms. Beside activation-induced clustering, T-cells stimulated with Staphylococci become Th1-type cells; however, this differentiation is mitigated in Bifidobacterium-stimulated T-cells. Strikingly, prestimulation of T-cells with Bifidobacterium suppresses the activation of Staphylococcus-specific T-helper cells in a cell-cell dependent manner by inducing FoxP3+CD4+ T-cells, increasing IL-10 and galectin-1 secretion and showing a CTLA-4-dependent inhibitory capacity. Furthermore Bifidobacterium dampens Th responses of severely ill COVID-19 patients likely contributing to resolution of harmful overreactions of the immune system. Targeted, age-specific interventions may enhance infection defence, and specific immune features may have potential cross-age utilization.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41630-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-41630-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41630-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().