Delayed Gut Microbiota Maturation in Infants Predictive of Allergic Diseases

Data from a multi-center longitudinal, prospective, general Canadian population birth cohort study provide insight of the infant microbiome that may be predictive of allergic diseases. Deeply phenotyped participants in the birth cohort (n = 1115) were compared to non-allergic comparator group. There are early-life influences and microbiome features which are uniformly associated with four distinct allergic diagnoses at 5 years: atopic dermatitis (n = 367), asthma (n = 165), food allergy (n = 136), and allergic rhinitis (n = 187). Shotgun metagenomic and metabolomic profiling in a subset (n = 589) revealed that impaired 1-year microbiota maturation may be universal to the pediatric allergies. A core set of functional and metabolic imbalances characterized by compromised mucous integrity, elevated oxidative activity, decreased secondary fermentation, and elevated trace amines, may be a significant mediator between microbiota maturation at age 1 year and allergic diagnoses at age 5 years (β_indirect = −2.28; p = 0.0020). Maturation of the infant immune system and gut microbiota occur in parallel. The findings suggest that the conformation of the microbiome may determine if tolerant immune programming arises, and microbiota maturation may provide a focal point to identify deviations from normative development to predict allergic diseases. Source: https://www.nature.com/