Antibody-producing cells display ‘historical record’ of childhood infections

Immunologists from Emory University have identified a distinct set of long-lived antibody-producing cells in the human bone marrow that function as an immune archive. The cells keep a catalog of how an adult’s immune system responded to infections decades ago in childhood encounters with measles or mumps viruses. The results, published Tuesday, July 14 in Immunity, could provide vaccine designers with a goalpost when aiming for long-lasting antibody production. “If you’re developing a vaccine, you want to fill up this compartment with cells that respond to your target antigen,” says co-senior author F. Eun-Hyung Lee, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and director of Emory Healthcare’s Asthma, Allergy and Immunology program. The findings could advance investigation of autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis, by better defining the cells that produce auto-reactive antibodies. Co-senior author of the Immunity paper is Iñaki Sanz, MD, professor of medicine and...