Human milk inspired oligosaccharides for allergy prevention

Nowadays 10-25% of the western population is affected with allergic disease like food allergy and/or allergic asthma. Food allergy is one of the first allergies to develop early in life and it predisposes these children to develop other allergies such as house dust mite (HDM) induced allergic asthma. Scientific insights associate altered gut bacteria composition in early life with increased allergy susceptibility. Human milk contains a large variety of non-digestible oligosaccharides (HMOS) known to support microbiota development and immune maturation, which may protect against allergy. HMOS inspired synthetic non-digestible oligosaccharides (sHMOS) are being developed to be added to a new generation formula milk for infants that cannot be breastfed.
The current project is based on recent findings that dietary intervention with  shortchain galacto- and long-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (GOS/lcFOS) can reduce allergy development in human and murine models of food allergy or HDM-driven asthma. Novel types of sHMOS, fucosyllactose and sialyllactose, are now available that may also contribute to allergy protection.
In this application we propose in vitro and in vivo studies to gain insight in the immunomodulatory properties of these sHMOS alone and combined with GOS/lcFOS. First the efficacy of sHMOS and mixtures in stimulation of a regulatory T helper (Th) 1 type immune response will be determined in in vitro co-culture models of human intestinal or airway epithelial cells with immune cells. Secondly, sHMOS and in vitro selected sHMOS mixtures will be studied for efficacy in allergy prevention in murine models for food allergy and HDM induced asthma and underlying mechanisms of action will be revealed.
These studies will provide insight in the biologic properties of these sHMOS for allergy prevention and identify new combinations of sHMOS for clinical testing aiming to benefit the health of formula fed infants and to further reduce allergy risk.