Semin Immunol. 2026 May 29;82:102035. doi: 10.1016/j.smim.2026.102035. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Latin America and the Caribbean host one of the world’s most complex intersections of ancestry, pathogen exposure, and environmental change, generating an immunological landscape that cannot be fully understood through frameworks derived from high-income regions. The region’s immune profiles reflect the legacy of colonization, population collapse, forced migration and admixture, together with more recent transformations driven by urbanization, dietary change, pollution and shifts in microbial exposure. These factors contribute to variability in immune responsiveness, susceptibility to infection and immune mediated and metabolic diseases. In this review, we aim to integrate insights from population genomics, infectious disease epidemiology, environmental immunology and social determinants of health to examine how these processes contribute to immune variation across LAC. We highlight how ancestry associated immunogenetic variation, in interaction with environmental and socioeconomic context, may contribute to heterogeneity in host-pathogen interactions, inflammation regulation and vaccine responses. We further discuss how persistent infectious exposures coexist with rising non-communicable diseases, generating distinct immunological trajectories. Understanding immunity in LAC may provide a framework for developing context specific interventions while offering broader insight into how ancestry, environment and social conditions shape human immune adaptation.
PMID:42215004 | DOI:10.1016/j.smim.2026.102035