Antibiotic use in infancy could leave lasting damage to immune defenses, according to new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center. The study, published in Cell, found that early exposure reduces the body’s ability to produce memory T cells—crucial for fighting respiratory infections—by disrupting the gut microbiome’s production of inosine.
Researchers tested this in both mice and human infant lung tissue. Mice given antibiotics showed weakened immune memory, but supplementing inosine reversed the effect, restoring immune function. Similar patterns were found in antibiotic-exposed human infants.
This work, supported by NIH and using samples from URMC’s BRINDL biobank, could pave the way for future therapies to protect at-risk infants without relying solely on antibiotics, offering new hope for safer immune development strategies.
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