Descrizione del progetto
Nutrizione e microbiota allo svezzamento per la previsione di malattie infiammatorie
L’espansione del microbiota durante lo svezzamento dei lattanti a seguito della sospensione del latte materno genera una memoria immunitaria, importante per prevenire lo sviluppo di allergie e malattie infiammatorie croniche (quali obesità e malattie infiammatorie intestinali) più avanti nella vita. Gli scienziati stanno studiando come e perché questo si verifichi. Il progetto WePredict, finanziato dal CER, indagherà in che modo le firme microbiche e nutrizionali allo svezzamento predicono la suscettibilità allo sviluppo di patologie infiammatorie croniche. Il progetto utilizzerà il sequenziamento ad alte prestazioni, algoritmi di apprendimento automatico e speciali modelli murini. I risultati faranno luce sui processi biologici e definiranno le firme microbiche e nutrizionali allo svezzamento che predicono la suscettibilità a patologie nell’adulto.
Obiettivo
Microbiota dysbiosis is associated with chronic inflammatory diseases such as allergy, inflammatory bowel diseases, cancer and metabolism-related disorders. It has been reported that exposure to microbial and dietary components early in life may program the immune system to develop tolerance or susceptibility to chronic inflammatory diseases with age. We have recently shown that vigorous immune response induced by gut microbiota at weaning, prevents the development and exacerbation of chronic inflammatory diseases in adult mice. Such immune response is termed the “weaning reaction”. Antibiotic exposure and/or excessive fats intake during this critical window dysregulate the weaning reaction and increase the subsequent susceptibility to develop immunopathology. However, our current knowledge of the biological processes underlying the weaning reaction remains largely unknown. Here we aim to determine the biological processes of the weaning reaction and define the microbial and nutritional signatures at weaning that predict the susceptibility to adult pathology. These aims will be assessed using high-throughput sequencing, machine-learning algorithms and axenic and gnotobiotic mice models. Our project will help deciphering how nutrition and microbiota at weaning orchestrate the immune system development and impact adult chronic inflammatory pathologies susceptibility.
Campo scientifico
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinflammatory diseases
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinegastroenterologyinflammatory bowel disease
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepathology
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
3012 Bern
Svizzera