Probiotic therapies for food allergies

描述(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，免疫系统会对原本无害的摄入分子做出不适当的反应。除了过敏等严重反应的医疗和社会负担外，食物过敏的发生率在西方社会也在惊人地增加。二十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，减少了对微生物的接触。事实上，微生物感染是罕见的，而且是机会主义的。相比之下，哺乳动物终身定居，拥有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。在动物身上的研究表明，肠道细菌是发展口腔耐受性的重要组成部分，因为无菌小鼠在控制对食物抗原的免疫反应方面存在缺陷。有趣的是，发达国家的过敏症患者肠道微生物区系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)可能会矛盾地减少我们接触促进健康的细菌，从而对人类健康产生不利影响。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的深刻功能。我们建议在食物过敏的实验模型中调查创新的假设，即共生肠道细菌可以纠正免疫失衡。此外，我们将研究抵御疾病所需的细胞机制(S)。这些开创性的研究可能会导致开发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。食物过敏是一种严重的医学疾病，由对饮食抗原的免疫反应不受控制而引起，导致严重的医疗后果。由于目前还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的潜力，作为一种治疗食物过敏的新方法。

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.