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Enterovirus infections and enterovirus specific T‐cell responses in infancy
Author(s) -
Juhela Sirpa,
Hyöty Heikki,
Lönnrot Maria,
Roivainen Merja,
Simell Olli,
Ilonen Jorma
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199803)54:3<226::aid-jmv14>3.0.co;2-f
Subject(s) - enterovirus , virology , enterovirus infections , enterovirus 71 , biology , picornaviridae , virus , medicine
Abstract The development of enterovirus specific T‐cell and antibody responses were examined in a cohort of 60 healthy infants at the ages of 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. By the age of 6 months, 68% of the infants had developed T‐cell responses against enterovirus antigens by lymphocyte proliferation test, whereas only 30% had serological evidence of an enterovirus infection. By this age, only 7% of the infants had adenovirus specific T‐cell responses and 3% had serologically verified adenovirus infection. Enterovirus specific T‐cell responses correlated with the lack of enterovirus antibodies in cord blood and the number of sibs reflecting protection by maternal antibodies and the rate of exposures, respectively. T‐cell responses cross‐reacted between different enterovirus serotypes. The results show that enterovirus infections occur frequently in infancy and induce T‐cell immunity. Cellular immunity may be a more sensitive indicator of neonatal enterovirus infections than antibodies. J. Med. Virol. 54:226–232, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.