FLICKR, YVES MERCKXAbnormal gut microbiota communities present in some 1-month-old children promote inflammation that results in an almost threefold increased risk of developing allergies by age 2, according to a study published today (September 12) in Nature Medicine. More of these kids—who had lower levels of four commensal gut bacteria groups and higher relative levels of two types of fungi—developed signs of asthma by age 4. Further experiments implicated gut microbiota-associated metabolites in stimulating immune cell dysfunction that leads to an increased risk for developing allergies and asthma.
“While some of this information has been seen in animal models, this is really one of the first and best human studies that fills in many of the gaps of how you get from microbiota problems to immune dysfunction to non-communicable diseases like asthma,” said Rodney Dietert, professor of immunotoxicology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who was not involved in the work.
“This is a well done study [providing a strong correlation] between the early microbiome, both bacterial and fungal, and T cell development,” said microbiologist Brett Finlay of the University of British Columbia, in Canada, who was part of a 2015 study that linked gut bacteria to asthma risk but was not involved in the current study. “It re-emphasizes the importance of ...
