Journal d'immunologie clinique et cellulaire
Libre accès

Abstrait

Immune Modulation in Children. A South African Perspective

Pieter Rousseau Fourie

Immune deficiencies in South Africa can be divided into two categories, i.e. primary immune deficiencies or secondary due to illnesses such as malignancies or infection e.g. the human immune virus (HIV). In the private pediatric clinical setting, children of-ten present with illnesses that can be traced to selective secondary immune deficiencies. Although highly effective, not all children are eligible for intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, either due to costs or non-IgG related immune deficiencies such as selective IgA or T-cell deficiencies. Intramuscular and subdermal immunoglobulin options are equally expensive and uncomfortable. The use of oral immune modulators, such as the erythromycin derivatives, has raised some concern, mainly because of the potential risk of bacterial resistance. Other so called immune boosters, e.g. Echinacea’s, are being advertised as potential solutions but have yet to prove to be efficient. In addition to this, the interaction between the gut micro-biome and the immune system is complex, but critical in maintaining and optimizing the immune system. Under certain disease entities such as inflammatory bowel disease, resulting in a leaky gut, the immune system becomes compromised because of the interaction between certain inflammatory signals and the lymphoid and bone marrow tissue specifically the naive and memory T-cell populations, such as CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes. An overview to immune modulation will be presented that has a direct beneficial effect on the health outcome of the children and new therapeutic modalities will be evaluated in terms of their response and restoration of the T-cell populations.