Probiotic therapies for food allergies

描述（由申请人提供）：免疫失衡是许多人类疾病的基础。食物过敏是一种严重的疾病，免疫系统会对摄入的无害分子产生不适当的反应。除了过敏反应等严重反应带来的医疗和社会负担外，西方社会食物过敏的发病率也在惊人地增加。20年前提出的卫生假说推测，过敏性疾病的增加是生活方式改变的结果，减少了与微生物的接触。事实上，微生物感染是罕见的，而且是机会性的。相比之下，哺乳动物一生寄生着100万亿个共生细菌，有益微生物对人类健康的贡献似乎是深远的。对动物的研究表明，肠道细菌是口腔耐受发展的重要组成部分，因为无菌小鼠在控制对食物抗原的免疫反应方面表现出缺陷。有趣的是，发达国家的过敏患者肠道菌群的群落组成发生了变化。因此，社会进步（包括疫苗接种、卫生设施、“西方”饮食和抗菌疗法）可能通过减少我们与促进健康的细菌的接触而对人类健康产生了矛盾的不利影响。我们已经鉴定并鉴定了一种有益的人类微生物，它具有诱导抗原特异性耐受性的深刻功能。我们建议研究一种共生肠道细菌可以纠正食物过敏实验模型中免疫失衡的创新假设。此外，我们将研究预防疾病所需的细胞机制。这些开创性的研究可能会导致基于利用共生肠道细菌的免疫调节特性的食物过敏新疗法的发展。食物过敏是一种严重的医学疾病，由对食物抗原的不受控制的免疫反应引起，导致严重的医疗后果。由于目前没有可行的治疗方法，我们试图通过诱导免疫调节来探索产生抗原特异性口服耐受性的潜力，作为一种新的治疗食物过敏的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Immunologic imbalances underlie many human diseases. Food allergies represent serious disorders whereby the immune system reacts inappropriately to otherwise innocuous ingested molecules. In addition to the medical and social burden of severe reactions such as anaphylaxis, the incidences of food allergies are alarmingly increasing in Western societies. The hygiene hypothesis proposed two decades ago speculated that increases in allergic diseases are the result of lifestyle changes that reduce exposure to microbes. Microbial infections are, in fact, rare and opportunistic. In contrast, mammals are colonized for life with 100 trillion commensal bacteria, and the contributions of beneficial microbes to human health appear to be profound. Studies in animals show that gut bacteria are an important component for the development of oral tolerance, as germ-free mice display deficits in controlling immune reactions to food antigens. Intriguingly, people with allergies in developed countries have alterations in the community composition of their gut microbiota. Therefore, societal advances (including vaccination, sanitation, 'western' diets, and anti-bacterial therapeutics) may have paradoxically affected human health adversely by reducing our exposure to health-promoting bacteria. We have identified and characterized a beneficial human microbe with the profound function of inducing antigen-specific tolerance. We propose to investigate the innovative hypothesis that a symbiotic gut bacterium can correct the immune imbalances in experimental models of food allergy. Furthermore, we will examine the cellular mechanism(s) required for protection from disease. These seminal studies may lead to the development of novel therapies to food allergies based on harnessing the immune-modulating properties of symbiotic gut bacteria. Food allergies are serious medical disorders caused by uncontrolled immune reactions to dietary antigens, which result in severe medical outcomes. As there are currently no viable treatments, we seek to explore the potential of generating antigen-specific oral tolerance by inducing immune regulation as a novel therapeutic approach for food allergies.