New study maps global immune gene diversity across multiple populations
Inherited variations in antibody genes can affect how we respond to infections and vaccines, show two new studies from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the journal Immunity. The researchers have mapped immune gene variation across multiple global populations and shown how these variations affect the ability to form neutralizing antibodies, for example against the influenza virus. "We show that the genes that enable the body to form antibodies vary far more than previously thought, and this variation is seen in both coding and gene copy number differences," says Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, who led the research. Antibodies, or immunoglobulins (IG), are produced by the immune system's B cells and are central to detecting and neutralising foreign substances. In the first study, the researchers describe the development of a new targeted sequencing method, ImmuneDiscover,...