Maturation of the infant’s immune system and intestinal microbiota occur in parallel; Therefore, the composition of the microbiome may determine whether tolerogenic immune programming emerges within the infant. In this sense, allergic diseases are affecting hundreds of millions of children worldwide…
Maturation of the infant’s immune system and intestinal microbiota occur in parallel; Therefore, the composition of the microbiome may determine whether tolerogenic immune programming emerges within the infant. In this sense, Allergic diseases are affecting millions of children worldwide. And its prevalence is increasing continuously. These increasing rates coincide with social and environmental changes that have had inter-generational effects on the stable colonizing microbes and their collective genes that make up our microbiota and microbiome, respectively.
The four types of allergy have the same aetiology, characterized by elevated immunoglobulin E (IgE) and inappropriately activated type 2 inflammatory responses. The four conditions include atopic dermatitis, asthma, food allergy and allergic rhinitis. In this regard, a study led by researchers from the University of British Columbia and the Children’s Hospital of British Columbia and published in ‘Nature Communications’ identifies characteristics of the gut microbiome and the effects in the first years of life that are associated with it in children. Development of any one of these four common allergies.
Common origins of allergic pathology
This study is one of the first to examine pediatric allergies of four different school ages at the same time. Although each of these diseases has different symptoms, Turvey’s lab was curious whether they might have a common origin related to the composition of the infant gut microbiota.
,We’re making sure more children and families seek emergency services because of allergies.”hinted at Dr. Stuart Turvey, Professor in the UBC Department of Pediatrics and researcher at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and co-author of the study.
To carry out the work, the researchers examined clinical evaluations of 1,115 children who were followed from birth to five years. Nearly half (523) of them had no evidence of allergy at any time, while more than half (592) had been diagnosed with one or more allergic disorders by an experienced physician. The researchers assessed the children’s microbiomes from stool samples collected at clinic visits at three months and one year of age.
A bacterial signature was detected in the stool samples that was associated with developing one of the four allergies in the children by the age of five. Bacterial signatures are hallmarks of dysbiosis or an imbalanced gut microbiota, possibly resulting in a compromised gut lining and an increased inflammatory response within the gut.
,Our body normally tolerates the millions of bacteria living in our intestines because they do so many good things for our health. Some of the ways we support them are by maintaining a strong barrier between them and our immune cells and by limiting the inflammatory signals that spur those immune cells into action.“, According to courtney hawkinson, PhD candidate at UBC and first author of the article. ,We found a common defect in these mechanisms in infants before allergies develop,
Many factors can shape the infant gut microbiota, including diet, how we are born, where we live, and our exposure to antibiotics. For example, antibiotics can kill sensitive bacteria, while Breastfeeding replenishes the bacteria in the baby’s gut and provides them with essential food, The researchers investigated how these types of effects affected the balance of the gut microbiota and the development of allergies.
,From these data we can see that factors such as antibiotic use in the first year of life are associated with a higher likelihood of allergic disorders later, while breastfeeding for the first six months appears to have a protective effect. This was the consensus for all allergic disorders we studied.Dr. Turvey concluded.