Study Finds Gut Microbiota Associated With Development of Food Allergy, Sensitivity in Infants

In a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, authors found that gut microbiome clustering in infants 1 month of age identified distinct neonatal enterotypes with differential risks of developing food sensitivity and food allergy. These findings support prior research that suggested a relationship between gut microbiota and food sensitivity and allergy.¹

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Microbiota, which include bacteria, are present in the gut soon after birth and are known to help with the normal development of the immune system and protect against certain diseases. Food sensitization often develops in early infancy and is a risk factor for subsequent food allergy, according to the authors. Despite this trajectory, the role or association of neonatal gut microbiota and the pathology of these manifestations are relatively unknown.^1,2

Because of this, the authors aimed to characterize gut microbiota in children using an enterotyping approach—computing the sum of the mean absolute difference between relative abundance derived from the Dirichlet multinomial mixtures models—and the enterotypes with the development of food sensitivity and allergy. The authors combined gut microbiome and fecal short-chain fatty acid data from 2 longitudinal birth-cohort studies in Japan—1 of which included 275 high-risk children from families with allergy histories, and the other enrolled 245 children to test allergy treatments—which clustered data from children who were aged 1 week to 7 years old, as well as their mothers. With this information, the investigators assessed the associations of gut microbiota and enterotypes that are risk factors for the development of food sensitivity and allergy.^1,2

Food allergies occur when the body mistakes a protein in the food as dangerous, causing an immune response to attack it. The study also looked at milk-, peanut-, egg white-, and wheat-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels within the blood from 1 year after birth and until the children were 7 years of age. Gut microbiota data were also collected, beginning 1 week following birth.²

Data from 2563 microbiomes had identified 6 enterotypes. More gut bacteria, for example, Bifidobacterium in the 1-month-old children, demonstrated significant relationships with the development of food sensitivity and allergy compared with children aged 1 month. At 1 month of age, enterotypes consisted of the following: Bacteroides-dominant; Klebsiella-dominant; and Bifidobacterium-dominant. Specifically, Bifidobacterium-dominant enterotypes with the highest fecal propionate concentration were observed to have the lowest risks of developing food sensitivity and allergy, notably of hen egg white sensitization.¹

Further, Bifidobacterium-dominant enterotypes demonstrated lower risks at 2 years old in 1 study (vs Bacteroides-dominant enterotype, adjOR: 0.10, 95% CI: 0.01-0.78; vs Klebsiella-dominant enterotype, adjOR: 0.10, 95% CI: 0.01-0.77) and at 9 months old in the other study (vs Bacteroides-dominant enterotype, adjOR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.11-0.91). These findings suggest that certain probiotic supplements may be a suitable method of defense in the prevention of food allergies, particularly in at-risk infants, according to the authors.¹

“We know that the early neonatal period is critical for immune system development, and our results emphasize this, showing that the type of bacteria in the gut at this critical time is the best at predicting immune responses to food seven years down the road. We conducted this study in the hope that a better understanding of neonatal gut microbiota would help generate ideas for allergy prevention strategies,” study author Hiroshi Ohno, MD, PhD, deputy director of RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, team leader of Laboratory for Intestinal Ecosystem, said in a news release. “We found that these microbiota do correlate with food allergen-specific serum IgE levels and that intervention with Bifidobacterium during infancy might help prevent later food allergies, especially in infants who are the most at risk.”²

REFERENCES

1. Shibata R, Nakanishi Y, Suda W, et al. Neonatal gut microbiota and risk of developing food sensitization and allergy. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2024.10.029

2. RIKEN. Infant gut bacteria and food allergies: the good, the bad, and the ugly. News release. January 30, 2025. Accessed February 13, 2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1072143