ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2011
Evidence for a peak shift in a humoral response to helminths: age profiles of IgE in the Shuar of Ecuador, the Tsimane of Bolivia, and the U.S. NHANES.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
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- Navigating Practical, Political, and Ethical Challenges of Long-Term Human Biology Field Research: The Shuar Health and Life History Project.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2026Article
- The Shuar Health and Life History Project: Overview at 20 Years and Introduction to the Special Issue.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2026Article
- Early-life infectious disease exposure, the "hygiene hypothesis," and lifespan: Evidence from hookworm disease.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Nonuniversality of inflammaging across human populations.Nature aging · 2025Article
- Childhood skeletal lesions common in prehistory are present in living forager-farmers and predict adult markers of immune function.Science advances · 2025Article
- Soil-Transmitted Helminths and the Intricacies of Immunoregulation: Evidence From Amazonian Ecuador for the Importance of Considering Species-Specific Effects Within the Old Friends Hypothesis.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Water insecurity may exacerbate food insecurity even in water-rich environments: Evidence from the Bolivian Amazon.The Science of the total environment · 2024Article
- Contemporary small-scale subsistence populations offer unique insights into human musculoskeletal health and aging.Science advances · 2024Review
- Revisiting immunity vs. exposure in schistosomiasis: A mathematical modeling study of delayed concomitant immunity.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Prevalence of Intestinal Parasitic Infections and Associated Factors among Presumptive Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients at Debre Tabor Referral Hospital, South Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of parasitology research · 2024Article
- Natural selection of immune and metabolic genes associated with health in two lowland Bolivian populations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Leveraging mice with diverse microbial exposures for advances in osteoimmunology.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Rural Embodiment and Community Health: an Anthropological Case Study on Biocultural Determinants of Tropical Disease Infection and Immune System Development in the USA.Current tropical medicine reports · 2023Review
- When the flood passes, does health return? A short panel examining water and food insecurity, nutrition, and disease after an extreme flood in lowland Bolivia.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- Sex-the most underappreciated variable in research: insights from helminth-infected hosts.Veterinary research · 2022Review
- Minimally invasive biomarkers in human and non-human primate evolutionary biology: Tools for understanding variation and adaptation.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Article
- Ecoimmunology in the field: Measuring multiple dimensions of immune function with minimally invasive, field-adapted techniques.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Review
- The embodiment of water insecurity: Injuries and chronic stress in lowland Bolivia.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe peak shift model predicts that the age-profile of a pathogen's prevalence depends upon its transmission rate, peaking earlier in populations with higher transmission and declining as partial immunity is acquired. Helminth infections are associated with increased immunoglobulin E (IgE), which may convey partial immunity and influence the peak shift. Although studies have noted peak shifts in helminths, corresponding peak shifts in total IgE have not been investigated, nor has the age-patterning been carefully examined across populations. We test for differences in the age-patterning of IgE between two South American forager-horticulturalist populations and the United States: the Tsimane of Bolivia (n=832), the Shuar of Ecuador (n=289), and the U.S. NHANES (n=8,336). We then examine the relationship between total IgE and helminth prevalences in the Tsimane. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsTotal IgE levels were assessed in serum and dried blood spots and age-patterns examined with non-linear regression models. Tsimane had the highest IgE (geometric mean =8,182 IU/ml), followed by Shuar (1,252 IU/ml), and NHANES (52 IU/ml). Consistent with predictions, higher population IgE was associated with steeper increases at early ages and earlier peaks: Tsimane IgE peaked at 7 years, Shuar at 10 years, and NHANES at 17 years. For Tsimane, the age-pattern was compared with fecal helminth prevalences. Overall, 57% had detectable eggs or larva, with hookworm (45.4%) and Ascaris lumbricoides (19.9%) the most prevalent. The peak in total IgE occurred around the peak in A. lumbricoides, which was associated with higher IgE in children <10, but with lower IgE in adolescents.
conclusionsThe age-patterning suggests a peak shift in total IgE similar to that seen in helminth infections, particularly A. lumbricoides. This age-patterning may have implications for understanding the effects of helminths on other health outcomes, such as allergy, growth, and response to childhood vaccination.
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