Infants’ allergies have dramatically increased in recent years and currently affect 20% of the population. Studies have shown that nutrition and microbiota development in early life can impact their development.
get the science of expertsFood allergy is one the of the most common chronic diseases of childhood, especially if persistent, impacting growth and nutrition, quality of life, and may even be life threatening due to the risk of anaphylaxis. Cow’s milk allergy (CMA) is one of the most common types of food allergy in industrialised countries (Flom and Sicherer 2019).
Dietary management of CMA consists of 2 approaches, one is “passive” approach, consisting of elimination diet, the other one is “proactive” approach, meaning actively modulate the immune system. Gut microbiota dysbiosis induces altered gut function, which results in aberrant immune response towards allergic pathways instead of protective tolerogenic pathways (Plunkett and Nagler 2017).
Furthermore, the gut immune system, the so-called gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), has 70 – 80% of the immune cells of the body (Castro and Arntzen, 1993), which make it the largest ‘immune organ” of the body. Targeting gut microbiota by using nutritional factors to actively immunomodulate the immune system opens therefore exciting research potential.
As timely probiotic administration was suggested to promote immune system development in formula-fed infants, this study aimed at assessing the safety and the effects of a probiotic supplement on mucosal immune competence and digestive function in formula-fed infants.
Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory cutaneous disorder with Th17 cells and Th17-related cytokines playing an important role in its development. 2′-fucosyllactose, which makes up about 30% of all HMOs in blood type secretor positive maternal milk, plays an essential role in supporting aspects of immune development and regulation.
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are known to positively influence infant health. Extensive variation exists in the levels, diversity, and complexity of oligosaccharides in the milk of a lactating mother.
Food allergies are a major health burden globally. There is currently no cure so management relies on allergen avoidance, which causes significantly reduced quality of life2. Intense research effort has focused on developing treatments that induce remission of allergy.
The project target C-section delivered newborns. It will analyse the role of microbiota in the higher risk of this population to Allergy and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), mainly Crohn Disease (CD), using murine models and define new preventive strategies based on microbiota modulation by nutritional approaches (mainly probiotics).
Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is the earliest and the most common manifestation of allergies. Recent studies have shown that allergies were associated with a disruption of the gut microbial ‘balance’ suggesting that the use of nutritional intervention very early in life may restore an optimal pattern of microflora aiming at improving the host’s health.
Gut microbiota development is impacted by mode of delivery, diet, lifestyle and environmental parameters such as closeness to animals. These parameters impact gut microbiota composition and have been linked to allergy protective effects (‘Microbiota hypothesis’).
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