Editorial: Immunomodulatory Functions of Nutritional Ingredients in Health and Disease

摘要

Nutritional immunology is a rapidly developing field. An expanding body of evidence demonstrate the impact of foods and nutritional components on gut and systemic immunity of consumers. During recent years, the implications of nutrition and nutritional intervention on prevention of disease have become accepted and has become an important tool in management of several diseases. Nutritional immunology might become even more important in prevention of disease when the interplay between nutritional processes and immune system is better understood. Particularly, specific cellular and molecular immune responses provoked by nutrition and the role of the gut barrier and microbiota in the interplay needs more study. This content of this Research Topic was designed to provide a timely collection on mechanistic, translational, and clinical research on the interplay between foods, nutritional components, and immunity in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. We have a series of original or review articles featuring the role of gut microbiota impacted by various factors, specific probiotics in shaping immunity and implications in immune inflammatory diseases. Fransen et al. focused on aged gut microbiota and health. Advanced age is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, referred to as inflammaging. The elderly are also known to harbor an altered gut microbiota composition. It was unknown whether this altered gut microbiota was cause or consequence of inflammaging. To this end, Fransen et al. performed microbiota transfer from old mice to germ free young mice and demonstrated that the gut microbiota from old mice contributes to inflammaging after transfer to young GF mice. This knowledge might lead to targeted strategies to juvenile the microbiota in elderly to reduce inflammaging. Besides aging, gender affects the immune system and gut microbiota composition. Also here cause or consequence was unknown. In this context, the same group demonstrate that gender differences in immunity are already present in GF mice, independent of gut microbiota and that microbiota-independent gender differences in the immune system select a gender-specific gut microbiota composition, which in turn further contributes to gender differences in the immune system ( Fransen et al. ). This research suggests that modulation of immunity by nutrition might need a gender specific approach. Accumulating evidence supports an important role of diet and gut microbiota in immune-mediated diseases. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurological disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the central nervous system (CNS), leading to demyelination, axonal damage, and symptoms such as fatigue and disability. The infiltration of peripherally activated immune cells into the CNS has a key pathogenic role. Preclinical as well as clinical studies suggest a role for gut microbiota and dietary components in MS. The review from van Den Hoogan et al. focused on recent studies on gut microbiota and dietary interventions in MS and prospective animal models in which efficacy of dietary intervention can be tested. In this Research Topic, we have also several studies focusing on different specific probiotic strains to modulate immune-related conditions. An imbalance in gut microbiota composition can lead to impaired intestinal homeostasis, chronic gut inflammation and a predisposition to developing, for example, colorectal cancer (CRC). The use of probiotic bacteria has emerged as an additive strategy to treat and prevent cancer. Moreover, consumption of beneficial bacteria may favorably modulate the composition of gut microbiota, which has been described in several studies to play an important role in preventing CRC carcinogenesis. In this regard, Jacouton et al. assessed the protective effect of oral treatment with Lactobacillus casei BL23, a probiotic strain well-known for its anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties in CRC. Their results demonstrate high potential of L. casei BL23 for the development of new, probiotic-based strategies to fight CRC. Oral bacteria interact with intestinal mucosa and impact immunity. However, mechanistic insights are limited. de Vos et al . conducted a randomized placebo-controlled cross-over trial, to evaluate Lactobacillus plantarum supplementation (strain TIFN101, CIP104448, or WCFS1) or placebo in healthy human subjects for 7 days. Their data show that specific bacterial strains can prevent immune stress induced by commonly consumed painkillers such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and can have enhancing beneficial effects on immunity of consumers by stimulating antigen presentation and memory responses. This study demonstrates that probiotic species can serve as a mean to prevent side-effects of medication. Indigenous Clostridium species have been recently demonstrated to induce colonic regulatory T cells (Tregs), and gut lymphocytes are able to migrate to pancreatic islets in an inf