Investigators: Akila Rekima, Nivedithaa Divakara, Savannah Machado, Patricia Macchiaverni, Debbie Palmer, Valerie Verhasselt
Project description
The identification of protective and risk factors for allergy in early life
Food allergy is an immune-mediated disease where an individual mounts inflammatory immune response to food instead of immune tolerance, characterised by anti-inflammatory immune response. It severely impairs the quality of life of affected families and causes potentially fatal anaphylactic cases that are on the rise. There is no curative treatment for food allergy and successful prevention needs the identification of modifiable risk factors. Currently, the benefit of breastmilk on allergy prevention lacks evidence. This shows the need to identify which factors in breast milk could be protective and to find strategies to increase their level.
- Can maternal prebiotic supplementation influence breast milk composition to prevent infant allergy? We take advantage of the SYMBA randomised control trial to investigate if modifying the maternal diet with prebiotic fibre supplementation during pregnancy and breastfeeding creates breastmilk that is more likely to reduce food allergy in offspring. The project will contribute data to inform maternal dietary interventions for allergy prevention in breastfed children. This study will also potentially reinforce the importance of breastfeeding, by highlighting its role in allergy prevention.
- Colostrum deprivation as a major contributor to the burden of food allergy. We provide a new perspective on the role of formula supplements during the first days of life in increasing the risk of food allergy. Studies so far have incriminated newborn exposure to cow’s milk allergens through in-hospital formula supplementation and showed an increased risk of cow’s milk allergy. We propose that newborn’s lack of colostrum plays a causative role in increasing the risk of food allergy upon in-hospital supplementation. In a translational approach, we investigate the need of colostrum for successful oral tolerance induction and prevention of food allergy to any major allergens. Findings of this study may lead to major change in clinical practice including the promotion of antenatally expressed colostrum if supplements are needed and the use of colostrum bioactives that are key for allergy prevention.
Plain language summary
Food allergy represents a major burden affecting the quality of life of 300 million people worldwide and 10% of one-year-olds in Australia. Our research investigates whether the very first milk, Colostrum, would be the solution to decrease the burden of food allergy. We also investigate whether prebiotic fibre supplementation during pregnancy and breastfeeding creates breastmilk that is more likely to reduce food allergy in offspring.
Funders of the project
Western Australia Children Research Foundation
Larsson Rosenquist Foundation
External collaborators
Claus Christopherson