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Research
Protection against neonatal respiratory viral infection via maternal treatment during pregnancy with the benign immune training agent OM-85Incomplete maturation of immune regulatory functions at birth is antecedent to the heightened risk for severe respiratory infections during infancy. Our forerunner animal model studies demonstrated that maternal treatment with the microbial-derived immune training agent OM-85 during pregnancy promotes accelerated postnatal maturation of mechanisms that regulate inflammatory processes in the offspring airways.
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OPTIMUM study protocol: an adaptive randomised controlled trial of a mixed whole-cell/acellular pertussis vaccine scheduleCombination vaccines containing whole-cell pertussis antigens were phased out from the Australian national immunisation programme between 1997 and 1999 and replaced by the less reactogenic acellular pertussis (aP) antigens. In a large case-control study of Australian children born during the transition period, those with allergist diagnosed IgE-mediated food allergy were less likely to have received whole-cell vaccine in early infancy than matched population controls (OR: 0.77 (95% CI, 0.62 to 0.95)). We hypothesise that a single dose of whole-cell vaccine in early infancy is protective against IgE-mediated food allergy.
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Transplacental Innate Immune Training via Maternal Microbial Exposure: Role of XBP1-ERN1 Axis in Dendritic Cell Precursor ProgrammingWe recently reported that offspring of mice treated during pregnancy with the microbial-derived immunomodulator OM-85 manifest striking resistance to allergic airways inflammation, and localized the potential treatment target to fetal conventional dendritic cell (cDC) progenitors. Here, we profile maternal OM-85 treatment-associated transcriptomic signatures in fetal bone marrow, and identify a series of immunometabolic pathways which provide essential metabolites for accelerated myelopoiesis.
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Persistent activation of interlinked type 2 airway epithelial gene networks in sputum-derived cells from aeroallergen-sensitized symptomatic asthmaticsOur findings provide new insight into the molecular mechanisms operative at baseline in the airway mucosa in atopic asthmatic with natural aeroallergen exposure
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Tracking of Vitamin D status from childhood to early adulthood and its association with peak bone massThere are moderate associations between vitamin D status measured in prepuberty, adolescence, and early adulthood
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Mannitol challenge testing for asthma in a community cohort of young adultsWe aimed to quantify the diagnostic utility of mannitol challenge testing for asthma in a community cohort and a symptomatic wheezing subset of this cohort.
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Phenotypic, functional, and plasticity features of classical and alternatively activated human macrophagesHuman peripheral blood monocytes were differentiated into uncommitted macrophages (M0) and then polarized to M1 and M2 phenotypes using LPS/IFN-gamma...
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Relationship between cytokine expression patterns and clinical outcomes: two population-based birth cohortsOur findings suggest that positive HDM 'allergy tests' and asthma are associated with a broad range of immunophenotypes, which may have important...
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Vitamin D status and predictors of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in Western Australian adolescentsUsing prospective data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, we investigated vitamin D status and predictors of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin...
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Oestrogen amplifies pre-existing atopy-associated Th2 bias in an experimental asthma modelThe role of oestrogen in experimental atopic asthma, and guide future research on sex-related variations in atopic asthma susceptibility/intensity