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Introduction: Epidemiological studies around the world on acute leukemia (AL) and risk factors in infants are scarce. Infant AL has been proposed to originate in utero , which facilitates its study by establishing a short exposure time in pregnant women to environmental and dietary factors that could contribute to the risk of or protection against leukemia. We hypothesized that maternal diet during pregnancy may be an important factor involved in AL in offspring., Methods: We conducted a hospital-based case-control study from 2010 to 2019 on maternal diet during pregnancy in nine high-specialty public hospitals of different health institutions that diagnose and offer treatment to children with AL in Mexico City. Cases (n=109) were children ≤24 months of age with de novo diagnosis of AL, and controls (n=252) were children obtained in hospitals from second-level medical care matched for age, sex, and health institution. Maternal diet during pregnancy was obtained by a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to assess the association between food groups and infant AL. Potential confounders were assessed by constructing directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) with Dagitty software in which adjusted options were identified for the construction of unconditional logistic regression models., Results: Cases were slightly predominantly female (52.3%). The years of education of the mother in cases and controls was 0-9 on average, and those who reported smoking cigarettes and consuming alcohol during pregnancy did so at a low frequency. Regarding the mother's diet, the main findings were that the consumption of allium vegetables during pregnancy was inversely associated with AL for medium and high consumption (OR=0.26, 95% CI 0.14-0.46; P -trend< 0.001). In contrast, the high consumption of high-fat dairy products had a positive association with AL (OR=2.37, 95% CI 1.30-4.34; P -trend<0.001). No association was found between consumption of topoisomerase II inhibitor foods during pregnancy and AL., Conclusion: The results suggest that maternal intake during pregnancy of allium vegetables, specifically garlic, is inversely associated with the development of AL in children ≤24 months old. On the other hand, consumption of high-fat dairy products is positively associated with AL in children ≤24 months old., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Pérez-Saldivar, Flores-García, Núñez-Villegas, Fajardo-Gutiérrez, Medina-Sanson, Jiménez-Hernández, Martín-Trejo, López-Santiago, Peñaloza-González, Cortés-Herrera, Merino-Pasaye, Amador-Sánchez, García-López, Pérez-Lorenzana, Román-Zepeda, Castañeda-Echevarría, López-Caballero, Martínez-Silva, Rivera-González, Granados-Kraulles, Flores-Botello, Medrano-López, Rodríguez-Vázquez, Torres-Valle, Mora-Rico, Mora-Ríos, R.García‐Cortés, Salcedo-Lozada, Flores-Lujano, Núñez-Enríquez, Bekker-Méndez, Mata-Rocha, Rosas-Vargas, Duarte-Rodríguez, Jiménez-Morales, Hidalgo-Miranda, López-Carrillo and Mejía-Aranguré.)

NK cells have unique attributes to react towards cells undergoing malignant transformation or viral infection. This reactivity is regulated by activating or inhibitory germline encoded receptors. An impaired NK cell function may result from an aberrant expression of such receptors, a condition often seen in patients with hematological cancers. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric cancer worldwide and NK cells have emerged as crucial targets for developing immunotherapies. However, there are important gaps concerning the phenotype and behavior of NK cells during emergence of ALL. In this study we analyze the phenotype and function of NK cells from peripheral blood in pediatric patients with ALL at diagnosis. Our results showed that NK cells exhibited an altered phenotype highlighted by a significant reduction in the overall expression and percent representation of activating receptors compared to age-matched controls. No significant differences were found for the expression of inhibitory receptors. Moreover, NK cells with a concurrent reduced expression in various activating receptors, was the dominant phenotype among patients. An alteration in the relative frequencies of NK cells expressing NKG2A and CD57 within the mature NK cell pool was also observed. In addition, NK cells from patients displayed a significant reduction in the ability to sustain antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Finally, an aberrant expression of activating receptors is associated with the phenomenon of leukemia during childhood., Competing Interests: Authors JDW, KWH, and KPM are employed by GlaxoSmithKline. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Valenzuela-Vázquez, Nuñez-Enriquez, Sánchez-Herrera, Medina-Sanson, Pérez-Saldivar, Jiménez-Hernández, Martiín-Trejo, Del Campo-Martínez, Flores-Lujano, Amador-Sánchez, Mora-Ríos, Peñaloza-González, Duarte-Rodríguez, Torres-Nava, Espinosa-Elizondo, Cortés-Herrera, Flores-Villegas, Merino-Pasaye, Almeida-Hernández, Ramírez-Colorado, Solís-Labastida, Medrano-López, Pérez-Gómez, Velázquez-Aviña, Martínez-Ríos, Aguilar-De los Santos, Santillán-Juárez, Gurrola-Silva, García-Velázquez, Mata-Rocha, Hernández-Echáurregui, Sepúlveda-Robles, Rosas-Vargas, Mancilla-Herrera, Jimenez-Morales, Hidalgo-Miranda, Martinez-Duncker, Waight, Hance, Madauss, Mejía-Aranguré and Cruz-Munoz.)