Hyperactive immune system at birth causes food allergy, according to research

Children with hyperactive immune cells at birth have higher chances of developing allergies to eggs, peanuts, milk, wheat and other common foods in early life. Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Barwon Health, Deakin University and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute claim that the discovery of new pattern of immune activation may lead to future treatments for infants to prevent food allergies in childhood.

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s professor and study researcher Len Harrison said in a press release that the team had identified a new immune “signature” found in cord blood at birth that determined the infants at risk of developing food allergies. Lead researcher Yuxia Zhang noted that babies who are at risk have immune cells, called monocytes, that were activated before or during birth. The signals from these cells promote the development of immune reaction by T cells that were inclined to cause allergic reactions to some foods.

The study, published in the journal journal Science Translational Medicine on Jan 14, involved using well-documented data gathered by the Barwon Infant Study (BIS), a report of infant health that looked at immunity, allergy, respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological development in more than 1,000 pregnant women and their babies from the Barwon region of Victoria. The BIS was a collaboration between Barwon Health, Deakin University and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.

Associate Professor Peter Vuillermin, a paediatrician who led the BIS, remarked that children with food allergies had become very widespread in Australia. Apparently, there has been a three-fold surge in hospitalisations due to food allergy over the past years and children under the age of five years were the most affected. Vuillermin added that one in every 10 infants in Melbourne acquire food allergy during the first year of life.

The researchers do not know why the growth in food allergy happened. However, this research shows that the immune systems of babies who develop food allergy are somehow destined for allergies by the time they are born. Harrison asserted that the next step is to find out what causes these babies to have hyperactive immune cells and whether they are hereditary or acquired.