Harnessing the early-life gut microbiome to prevent atopic disease

The last decade of microbiome research has shed light on the crucial role for the gut microbiome in maintaining systemic immune and metabolic homeostasis. Particularly during early life, nutrition and gut microbes play a significant role in shaping immune development and tolerance induction to harmless food antigens and allergens. Environmental factors that disrupt or delay this natural succession (e.g. due to early-life antibiotics use) can dysregulate immune homeostasis, predisposing neonates to atopic disease and childhood asthma. We are just starting to appreciate the complex interplay between the gut microbiota, diet, and immune homeostasis at distal organs such as the lung. My recent findings reveal a novel pathway through which antibiotics use in early life can predispose the lung to allergic airway inflammation and highlight the therapeutic potential of microbial metabolites. This is an area with a plethora of challenges but huge opportunities to harness microbes, metabolites and the gut-lung axis could be key to the development of effective preventative and therapeutic strategies against respiratory diseases.