Distinct immune phenotypes in infants developing asthma during childhood

Early exposure to environmental triggers may elicit trajectories to chronic inflammatory disease through deregulated immune responses. To address relations between early immune competence and development of childhood asthma, we performed functional immune profiling of 186 parameters in blood of 541 18-month-old infants and examined links between their response phenotype and development of transient or persistent disease at 6 years of age. An abnormal neutrophil-linked antiviral response was associated with increased risk of transient asthma. Children who exhibited persistent asthma at year 6 showed enhanced interleukin-5 (IL-5) and IL-13 production in stimulated T cells at 18 months of age, which was associated with early life bacterial colonization of the airways. These findings highlight the early appearance of distinct immune characteristics in infants developing different asthma endotypes during childhood.