Newborn T cells found to excel in immune defense

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The content discusses new research from Cornell University revealing that newborn T cells are more effective in fighting off infections compared to adult T cells. The discovery challenges the long-standing belief that infant T cells are weaker versions of adult T cells. Newborn T cells excel in innate immunity, which provides rapid but nonspecific protection against microbes, rather than adaptive immunity which involves specific germ recognition. This research could lead to therapeutic applications involving the control of T cell behavior.

Scientists have long believed that a newborn’s immune system was an immature version of an adult’s, but new research from Cornell University shows that newborns’ T cells – white blood cells that protect from disease – outperform those of adults at fighting off numerous infections.

These results help clarify why adults and infants respond differently to infections and pave the way for controlling T cells’ behavior for therapeutic applications.

This discovery was described in a paper published in Science Immunology on Feb. 23, co-led by Brian Rudd, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, and Andrew Grimson, professor of molecular biology and genetics.

For example, adult T cells outperform newborn T cells at tasks including recognizing antigens, forming immunological memory and responding to repeat infections, which has led to the belief that infant’s T cells were just a weaker version of the adult ones. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, many were surprised by the apparent lack of illness in infants, bringing this long-standing belief into question.

Interested in understanding these age-related differences, Rudd and Grimson discovered that newborn T cells are not deficient: Instead, they are involved in a part of the immune system that does not require antigen recognition: the innate arm of the immune system. While adults T cells use adaptive immunity – recognizing specific germs to then fight them later ­– newborn T cells are activated by proteins associated with innate immunity, the part of the immune system that offers rapid but nonspecific protection against microbes the

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