Common origin behind major childhood allergies

Several major childhood allergies may all stem from the community of bacteria living in our gut, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia and BC Children's Hospital.

The research, published in Nature Communications, identifies gut microbiome features and early life influences that are associated with children developing any of four common allergies -- eczema, asthma, food allergy and/or hay fever.

The findings could lead to methods of predicting whether a child will develop allergies, and ways to prevent them from developing at all.

"We're seeing more and more children and families seeking help at the emergency department due to allergies," said Dr. Stuart Turvey, professor in the department of pediatrics at UBC and an investigator at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, and co-senior author on the study.

"Hundreds of millions of children worldwide suffer from allergies, including one in three children in Canada, and it's important to understand why this is happening and how it can be prevented."

For the study, researchers examined clinical assessments from 1,115 children who were tracked from birth to age five.

Roughly half of the children (523) had no evidence of allergies at any time, while more than half (592) were diagnosed with one or more allergic disorders by an expert physician.

The researchers evaluated the children's microbiomes from stool samples collected at clinical visits at three months and one year of age.

Reference: Courtney Hoskinson, Darlene L. Y. Dai, Kate L. Del Bel, Allan B. Becker, Theo J. Moraes, Piushkumar J. Mandhane, B. Brett Finlay, Elinor Simons, Anita L. Kozyrskyj, Meghan B. Azad, Padmaja Subbarao, Charisse Petersen, Stuart E. Turvey. Delayed gut microbiota maturation in the first year of life is a hallmark of pediatric allergic disease. Nature Communications, 2023; 14 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40336-4