The HIV negative babies and their immune system
HIV antiviral therapy prevent the disease transmission from mothers to babies to save thousands of babies life. However, the growing problems of increased death rate have been emerged since the HIV may impact the immune system in babies. The true relationship between the death rate and immunity in babies has not been investigated yet.
According to the statistics, the number of HIV-exposed uninfected infants has been increased more than 1 million between 2009–2014. There’s evidence showed that HIV exposed uninfected infants tend to have slower growth, easily catch diseases and have higher death rates compared to healthy babies.
T cell is one type of immune cell which is responsible for fighting pathogens like bacteria and viruses. In patients infected with HIV, the amount of T cell usually indicates the progression of HIV infection and guiding the HIV treatment.
The researchers from the University of Rhode Island conducted a new study recently published in Science Reports.They looked into the varieties of immune cell (T cell receptor beta chain) from the cord blood sample in both HIV exposed and HIV unexposed infants to see if there’s any differences between them.
The scientists found that the T cell (T cell receptor beta chain) was significantly more diverse in the healthy infants than in HIV-exposed uninfected infants. They concluded that the weakened immune system in healthy infants could be impacted by the maternal HIV infection.
For more information, please visit Scientific Report.
Questions: What are your typical recommendations for strengthening immune system in healthy babies and children? What are your thoughts on this research?
Follow Medication Health News on social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Have a question? We can help you to answer it — Give us a call at (617) 732–2759.
