Folic acid has been associated with fetal development, especially in fetal immunity. Therefore, limited evidence regarding the effects of different folic acid supplementation of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive mothers in innate immunity in offspring. Herein, this study aimed to explore the association between folic acid supplementation and the innate immunity of neonates and the immunological efficacy of hepatitis B vaccine (HepB), which may provide insights that could inform pre-pregnancy health management in HBsAg-positive mothers.
It is an ambispective cohort study with 293 pairs of HBsAg-positive mothers-offspring in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China. Mothers were classified into three groups according to the time of starting folic acid supplementation, non-supplementation group, pre-pregnancy group and post-pregnancy supplementation group. Immunological indexes such as immune cells proportion and innate immune mediators in cord blood and anti-HBs in infants were measured. Differences in immunological indexes were analyzed by One-Way ANOVA test. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed for factors associated with abnormal immunological indexes and potential confounders were adjusted.
The preconception folic acid group showed a significantly higher expression levels of STING (P = 0.005) and pNF-κB (P = 0.010) in cord blood along with higher anti-HBs titres (P = 0.006), when compared to both non-supplementation group and post-pregnancy supplementation group. Higher anti-HBs levels indicate a stronger immune response to HepB and may enhance protection against HBV infection during early life. Infants in the high pNF-κB expression group exhibited a significantly elevated seropositive rate of HepB compared to those in the low pNF-κB expression group (P = 0.037). There were no mediation effects and no moderation effects in this study, potentially due to the direct influence of folic acid supplementation on immune responses or the limited sample size.
In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that preconception folic acid supplementation may enhance HepB vaccine responsiveness in infants of HBsAg-positive mothers. Meanwhile, high pNF-κB expression in cord blood can increase seropositive rates in infants. This discovery has significant public health implications, as it may provide a simple and accessible intervention to improve vaccination outcomes and reduce HBV transmission in endemic regions.
Copyright © 2025 Lian, Men, Xu, Li, Li, Wang, Yao, Li, Qu, Feng and Wang.

Proteasome inhibitors bortezomib, carfilzomib and ixazomib (approved by the US Food and Drug Administration [FDA]) induce remissions in patients with multiple myeloma (MM), but most patients eventually become resistant. MM and other hematologic malignancies express ubiquitous constitutive proteasomes and lymphoid tissue-specific immunoproteasomes; immunoproteasome expression is increased in resistant patients. Immunoproteasomes contain 3 distinct pairs of active sites, β5i, β1i, and β2i, which are different from their constitutive β5c, β1c, and β2c counterparts. Bortezomib and carfilzomib block β5c and β5i sites. We report here that pharmacologically relevant concentrations of β5i-specific inhibitor ONX-0914 show cytotoxicity in MM cell lines similar to that of carfilzomib and bortezomib. In addition, increasing immunoproteasome expression by interferon-γ increases sensitivity to ONX-0914 but not to carfilzomib. LU-102, an inhibitor of β2 sites, dramatically sensitizes MM cell lines and primary cells to ONX-0914. ONX-0914 synergizes with all FDA-approved proteasome inhibitors in MM in vitro and in vivo. Thus, immunoproteasome inhibitors, currently in clinical trials for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, should also be considered for the treatment of MM.

NKG2D, an activating receptor expressed on NK cells and T cells, is critically involved in tumor immunosurveillance. In this study, we explored the potential therapeutic utility of the NKG2D ligand ULBP2 for the treatment of colon carcinoma. To this end we designed a fusion protein consisting of human ULBP2 and an antibody-derived single chain targeting the tumor carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). The bispecific recombinant fusion protein re-directed NK cells towards malignant cells by binding to both, tumor cells and NK cells, and triggered NK cell-mediated target cell killing in vitro. Moreover, tumor growth was significantly delayed in a syngeneic colon carcinoma mouse model in response to immunoligand treatment. The anti-tumor activity could be attributed to the stimulation of immune cells with an elevated expression of the activation marker CD69 on NK, T and NKT cells and the infiltration of CD45+ immune cells into the solid tumor. In summary, it was demonstrated that immunoligands provide specific tumor targeting by NK cells and exert anti-tumor activity in vitro and in vivo. This technology represents a novel immunotherapeutic strategy for solid tumors with the potential to be further developed for clinical applications.
© 2013 UICC.