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| Title | B cell imprinting in children impairs antibodies to the haemagglutinin stalk. |
|---|---|
| Journal, issue, pages | Nature, Year 2026 |
| Publish date | Mar 11, 2026 |
Authors | Jiayi Sun / Gyunghee Jo / Chloe A Troxell / Yanbin Fu / Robert Hoezl / Huibin Lv / Hassanein H Abozeid / Qi Wen Teo / Tossapol Pholcharee / Joshua J C McGrath / Siriruk Changrob / Sean A Nelson / Atsuhiro Yasuhara / Min Huang / Nai-Ying Zheng / Jordan C Chervin / Lei Li / Monica L Fernández-Quintero / Johannes R Loeffler / Alesandra J Rodriguez / Jiachen Huang / Olivia M Swanson / Angel Balmaseda / Guillermina Kuan / Lora Campredon / E Kaitlynn Allen / Gabriele Neumann / Nicholas C Wu / Yoshihiro Kawaoka / Florian Krammer / Asuncion Mejias / Octavio Ramilo / Paul G Thomas / Aubree Gordon / Andrew B Ward / Julianna Han / Patrick C Wilson / ![]() |
| PubMed Abstract | Immune imprinting or original antigenic sin is a phenomenon whereby the immune system preferentially recalls its initial response to a related, often evolving pathogen after subsequent exposure. ...Immune imprinting or original antigenic sin 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. |
External links | Nature / PubMed:41813896 |
| Methods | EM (single particle) |
| Resolution | 2.62 - 3.12 Å |
| Structure data | EMDB-70233, PDB-9o8q: EMDB-70234, PDB-9o8r: EMDB-70235, PDB-9o8s: EMDB-70236, PDB-9o8t: |
| Chemicals | ![]() ChemComp-NAG: |
| Source |
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Keywords | Viral protein/Immune System / Influenza / Hemagglutinin / Antibody complex / Viral protein / Viral protein-Immune System complex |
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influenza a virus (a/hong kong/485197/2014(h3n2))
homo sapiens (human)
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