The increasing prevalence of allergic diseases worldwide, especially in developed countries, has prompted scientists to investigate the driving force behind it. Although the alterations and characteristics of microbiomes have been studied in relation to allergy development, few studies have looked at infant microbial associations with multiple distinct allergic disease outcomes. Researchers at the University of British Columbia conducted a longitudinal study to compare the microbiomes of faeces from one-year-old infants who developed allergies in childhood (allergic group) and those who did not (healthy control).

A significant reduction in Shannon diversity was observed in one-year-old infants who developed atopic diseases at five, compared with those who did not develop allergies in early childhood. In addition, microbiota-predicated age was also statistically lower in the one-year-old in the allergic group. In addition, the researchers investigated the difference in abundance of microbiomes in healthy controls and the allergic group and identified 9 species whose abundance were different in the allergic group, including a decrease in Anaerostipes hadrus, Fusicatenibacter saccharivorans, Eubacterium hallii, and Blautia wexlerae and increases in Eggerthella lenta, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Clostridium innocuum, and Tyzzerella nexilis. The shift in gut microbiota alters the composition of metabolites and compromises intestinal mucous integrity, increasing one¡¦s vulnerability to pathogens. In conclusion, the study pinpointed the maturation-dependent features and furthered our understanding of the pathophysiology of allergic diseases.

References

Hoskinson C, et al. Nat Commun. 2023;14(1):4785