{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T19:48:16Z","timestamp":1790192896983,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,22]],"date-time":"2020-07-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1595376000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000265","name":"Medical Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["G0701291 and SCC1085"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["G0701291 and SCC1085"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000265","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Vaccines"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection rates approach 100% by the first year of life in low-income countries. It is not known if this drives changes to innate immunity in early life and thereby altered immune reactivity to infections and vaccines. Given the panoply of sex differences in immunity, it is feasible that any immunological effects of HCMV would differ in males and females. We analysed ex vivo innate cytokine responses to a panel of toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands in 108 nine-month-old Gambian males and females participating in a vaccine trial. We found evidence that HCMV suppressed reactivity to TLR2 and TLR7\/8 stimulation in females but not males. This is likely to contribute to sex differences in responses to infections and vaccines in early life and has implications for the development of TLR ligands as vaccine adjuvants. Development of an effective HCMV vaccine would be able to circumvent some of these potentially negative effects of HCMV infection in childhood.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/vaccines8030407","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,23]],"date-time":"2020-07-23T10:14:06Z","timestamp":1595499246000},"page":"407","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Sex-Differential Impact of Human Cytomegalovirus Infection on In Vitro Reactivity to Toll-Like Receptor 2, 4 and 7\/8 Stimulation in Gambian Infants"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2610-5017","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Momodou","family":"Cox","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"},{"name":"School of Health &amp; Biomedical Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3083, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jane U.","family":"Adetifa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fatou","family":"Noho-Konteh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lady C.","family":"Sanyang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abdoulie","family":"Drammeh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6889-3667","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Magdalena","family":"Plebanski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health &amp; Biomedical Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3083, Australia"},{"name":"Department of Immunology and Pathology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hilton C.","family":"Whittle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"},{"name":"Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sarah L.","family":"Rowland-Jones","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"},{"name":"Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iain","family":"Robertson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine and School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania 7250, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1575-1953","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Katie L.","family":"Flanagan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infant Immunology Group, Vaccines and Immunity Theme, MRC Unit, P.O. Box 273, Fajara, The Gambia"},{"name":"School of Health &amp; Biomedical Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3083, Australia"},{"name":"School of Medicine and School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania 7250, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5766","DOI":"10.1128\/JVI.00052-07","article-title":"Cytomegalovirus infection in gambian infants leads to profound CD8 T-Cell differentiation","volume":"81","author":"Miles","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Virol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"130","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2020.00130","article-title":"Cytomegalovirus latency and reactivation: An intricate interplay with the host immune response","volume":"10","author":"Forte","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. Cell Infect. 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