Biogeography of the Relationship between the Child Gut Microbiome and Innate Immune System
Nelly Amenyogbe, Pedro A. Dimitriu, Kinga K. Smolen, Eric Brown, Casey P. Shannon, Scott J. Tebbutt, Phillip J. Cooper, Arnaud Marchant, Tessa Goetghebuer, Monika Esser, B. Brett Finlay, Tobias R. Kollmann, William W. Mohn
Abstract
Both the gut microbiome and innate immunity are known to differ across biogeographically diverse human populations. The gut microbiome has been shown to directly influence systemic immunity in animal models. With this, modulation of the gut microbiome represents an attractive avenue to improve child health outcomes associated with altered immunity using population-specific approaches. However, there are very scarce data available to determine which members of the gut microbiome are associated with specific immune responses and how these differ around the world, creating a substantial barrier to rationally designing such interventions. This study addressed this knowledge gap by identifying relationships between distinct bacterial taxa and cytokine responses to specific microbial agonists across highly diverse settings. Furthermore, we provide evidence that immunomodulatory effects of region-specific stool microbiomes can be partially recapitulated in germfree mice. This is an important contribution toward improving global child health by targeting the gut microbiome.