Can microbial and dietary interventions in mother and child prevent allergy development?

The maternal microbial environment during pregnancy, the pioneer microbiome provided to the child during vaginal delivery and the early postnatal microbiota may crucially influence offspring immune programming and allergy development.We aim to investigate whether:1) Pre- and postnatal Lactobacillus reuteri and ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation can prevent allergy development by modulating maternal and child immunity and epigenetic regulation, via mechanisms functionally validated in gastrointestinal enteroid and immune cell co-cultures (Intervention study 1).2) Providing maternal vaginal and gut microbiota to neonates delivered by elective Caesarean section (CS) enhances microbiota diversity during infancy and reduces allergy development (Intervention study 2).We will perform two unique allergy prevention trials, in inter-disciplinary collaborative efforts between experts in immunology, metabolomics and systems biologiy, and medical specialists in microbiology, obstetrics and paediatric allergology.SignificanceEfficacious preventive measures, required to combat the allergy epidemic, may be identified by determining how the immune interplay between mother and child is influenced by microbial factors and regulated by epigenetic mechanisms.

Providing CS delivered neonates with the maternal pioneer microbiome that they would have obtained if delivered vaginally may enhance gut and oral microbiota diversity during infancy, thereby reducing allergy development.