The international research team at the University of Sheffield in England and Boston-based Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health identified the prime response systems children use in controlling infections, according to Science Daily.
Researchers are seeking to apply this finding to help combat sepsis, which affects more than 20 million patients around the world.
The new study helped researchers identify key differences in cell-pathway activity in the blood of adults and children. By establishing these differences between the pathways of children and adults, this finding could lead to new ways of addressing sepsis through the development of new drugs.
"Children are naturally more resistant to lots of infectious diseases," said Winston Hide, PhD. "During outbreaks like Spanish flu and Ebola, we know that children survived much better than adults. By analyzing the blood profiles of infected children and comparing them to adults with sepsis, we were able to identify children whose natural resilience helped them to ward off infection."
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