草莓污视频导航

Jan. 31, 2020

草莓污视频导航 researcher investigates the link between the microbiome and asthma in premature babies

Study to involve scientists and clinicians across Canada
Marie Claire Arrieta
Marie Claire Arrieta placeholder

Every year, over 30,000 Canadian babies are born prematurely, resulting in an estimated cost of $8 billion to the health-care system and even greater costs to families.聽Premature infants, or preemies, are at increased risk of lifelong diseases and treatments and the lungs are among the most compromised of their organs.

Until now, it has been accepted that there is potential for reduced lung function and structural damage to the lungs caused by medical practices needed to support respiration. However, evidence shows that babies who do not develop lung damage are still at increased risk of asthma, indicating that other variables impact this risk.

Exciting recent findings from studies with babies show that the large community of microbes in the human gut have a role in asthma development. However, despite their heightened risk of asthma and the microbiome alterations linked to prematurity, no clinical study of the microbiome and asthma has studied premature babies听鈥 until now.

The and partners are investing $18 million over five years in microbiome research which includes a grant to聽Dr. Marie Claire Arrieta, PhD 聽at the聽 (CSM),聽pictured above, to study why children born prematurely are at a higher risk of developing asthma.

National expertise harnessed

鈥淟everaging a world-class pan-Canadian team of microbiome experts, both at the International Microbiome Centre and nationally, and an established cohort specifically designed to study the microbiome and asthma, this team grant will be the first to unravel microbiome-asthma linkages in the highly vulnerable premature infant population,鈥 says Arrieta, an assistant professor in the departments of and Paediatrics and member of the and the at the CSM.

鈥淲e will now be able to monitor clinical and environmental exposures unique to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to help us investigate how the known alterations in the gut microbiome of premature babies contributes to airway inflammation and asthma later in life,鈥 she says.

Researchers on this team grant are experts in the microbiome field at the 草莓污视频导航, Dalhousie University, University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Ottawa, Universit茅 du Qu茅bec and Lallemand Health Solutions.

鈥淐ollaboration on this is key to its success,鈥 says Arrieta, who is also a co-investigator on another team grant based out of Sick Kids in Toronto.

Marie Claire Arrieta

Dr. Arrieta tours the microbiome exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

Cynthia Munster, for the 草莓污视频导航

Arrieta adds the study not only benefits from unique microbiome expertise, but also from having direct access to a state-of-the-art germ-free facility at the , at the 草莓污视频导航. It also has access to a pan-Canadian interdisciplinary research core called 鈥 led through 草莓污视频导航鈥 that will allow the team to help design probiotics to be tested in NICUs that already use probiotics every day.

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鈥淣ot only does this increase the likelihood of bench-to-bedside discovery, but this study has the potential to identify microbiome-based therapeutics to both decrease, and even prevent asthma, improving health outcomes for the thousands of premature children born in Canada every single year,鈥 she says.

The Government of Canada, through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), in partnership with Mitacs and JDRF Canada, are providing the funding to the research teams. Dr. Arrieta鈥檚 research is also supported by the .

The International Microbiome Centre at the 草莓污视频导航 is a translational research centre designed to investigate the microbiome of humans, plants, animals and the physical environment. Together, world-class microbiome researchers, advanced technologies and relationship building are positioned to spark groundbreaking discoveries that harness the healing power of the microbiome

The Integrated Microbiome Platforms for Advancing Causation Testing and Translation, or IMPACTT, includes a cross-disciplinary group of investigators made up of microbiologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, clinician scientists, ethicists, sex/gender champions, and computational biologists from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia and is led by the 草莓污视频导航.