In a new publication with Nestlé, we investigated how a 2-HMO formula can mitigate lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in formula-fed infants.
Using shotgun metagenomic sequencing and untargeted mass spectrometry metabolomics, we measured the microbiota composition and 743 known biochemical species in infant stool at 3 months of age. We identified biochemicals associated to 2-HMO formula feeding using multivariate analysis and integrated these with the microbiota data.
Our analysis revealed three molecular pathways that potentially explain the lower incidence of LRTIs: increased gamma-glutamylation and N-acetylation of amino acids, and decreased inflammatory signalling lipids. Integration of stool metagenomic data further linked specific Bifidobacterium and Bacteroides species to the clinical effect.
These findings deepen our understanding of the infant gut/microbiome co-metabolism in early life and provide evidence for how such metabolic changes may influence immune competence at distant mucosal sites, such as the airways.
We are very proud to continue helping researchers in understanding the complex interactions between the infant gut microbiome in early life and the impact on health and disease and would like to congratulate the great team of experts from Nestlé Francois-Pierre MARTIN, Hanne Tytgat, Deborah Moine, Bernard Berger and Norbert Sprenger and our colleagues Aron Eklund, PhD, and Helle Krogh Pedersen, PhD, with this achievement.
Read the full publication.