A class of bacteria commonly found in the guts of healthy people could be used to cure allergies in the future.
The bacteria proved to effectively protect mice from food allergies. They are the same bacteria that decrease during antibiotic and could have an effect on the growing rate of food allergies, which have increased 50 percent since 1997, Science reported.
The average child in the U.S. has taken three courses of antibiotics by the time they are two, which can change the population of microbes existing in the gut.
In 2004 researchers reported wiping out gut bacteria in mice led to food allergies. Since that finding the researchers have been working to determine why these bacteria offer food allergy protection.
The team determined mice given antibiotics early in life were more susceptible to peanut sensitization, which is a model of a human peanut allergy. They then introduced a solution made with Clostridia, which is typically found in the mammalian gut. Once the bacteria was introduced to the mice's mouths and stomachs food sensitization decreased.
Through specific immune cells the bacteria helped keep the peanut proteins from evoking an allergic reaction in the bloodstream.
The bacteria are maintaining the integrity of the [intestinal] barrier," said Cathryn Nagler, an immunologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois.
The findings provide new insight into how antibiotics administered right after birth can change the microbial population within the gut. The team also found receiving penicillin right after birth increased the chance of obesity it adulthood.
"[The ultimate goal is to] interrupt [the allergy] process by manipulating the microbiota," Nagler said. A probiotic containing Clostridia could be used as an allergy therapy in the future.
The findings were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
