Download MendeleyB cell imprinting in children impairs antibodies to the haemagglutinin stalk.
Sun, J., Jo, G., Troxell, C.A., Fu, Y., Hoezl, R., Lv, H., Abozeid, H.H., Teo, Q.W., Pholcharee, T., McGrath, J.J.C., Changrob, S., Nelson, S.A., Yasuhara, A., Huang, M., Zheng, N.Y., Chervin, J.C., Li, L., Fernandez-Quintero, M.L., Loeffler, J.R., Rodriguez, A.J., Huang, J., Swanson, O.M., Balmaseda, A., Kuan, G., Campredon, L., Kaitlynn Allen, E., Neumann, G., Wu, N.C., Kawaoka, Y., Krammer, F., Mejias, A., Ramilo, O., Thomas, P.G., Gordon, A., Ward, A.B., Han, J., Wilson, P.C.(2026) Nature 653: 528-537
- PubMed: 41813896 Search on PubMedSearch on PubMed Central
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10248-6
- Primary Citation Related Structures:
9O8Q, 9O8R, 9O8S, 9O8T - PubMed Abstract:
Immune imprinting 1 or original antigenic sin 2 is a phenomenon whereby the immune system preferentially recalls its initial response to a related, often evolving pathogen after subsequent exposure. Despite its important implications for vaccine development, the causes of imprinting remain unclear. Here, to understand the basis and impact of imprinting by influenza A viruses, we characterized the B cell responses of young children after consecutive first infections with divergent H1N1 and H3N2 strains of influenza. Children had a primary but otherwise similar B cell response to that of adults. Adult B cells commonly cross-reacted with past strains using more stereotyped and mutated immunoglobulin genes, indicating substantial homosubtypic imprinting. In children, after consecutive heterosubtypic primary infections, up to 6% of memory B cells are H1/H3 cross-reactive and bind to the highly conserved central stalk epitope-a lead target for broadly protective vaccine candidates. Over 90% of these B cells had a higher affinity for the imprinting H3N2 strain, resulting in reduced breadth and neutralization potency against H1N1 strains. Mechanistically, the imprinting H3 strains and affected H1 strains shared a residue change in the stalk epitope (D46N) that was central to the nearly universal shift in reactivity, despite differing by only a single atomic group. In conclusion, imprinting by influenza viruses can cause a deleterious shift of nearly the entire memory recall response against key, conserved epitopes.
- Drukier Institute for Children's Health, Department of Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
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