Department of Pediatrics, Buzzi Children's Hospital, University of Milan, 20154, Milan, Italy.
Sensory & Consumer Science Lab (SCS_Lab), Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, University of Milan, 20133, Milan, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 28;13(1):7010. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34113-y.
Currently, the mechanisms underlying sensory perception and sensory performance in children with food allergies are far from being understood. As well, only recently, single research afforded the oral host-commensal milieu, addressing oral microbial communities in children with peanut allergies. To bridge the current gaps in knowledge both in the sensory and microbial fields, a psychophysiological case-control study was performed in allergic children (n = 29) and a healthy sex-age-matched control group (n = 30). Taste perception, food neophobia, and liking were compared in allergic and non-allergic children. The same subjects were characterized for their oral microbiota composition by addressing saliva to assess whether specific profiles were associated with the loss of oral tolerance in children with food allergies. Our study evidenced an impaired ability to correctly identify taste qualities in the allergic group compared to controls. These results were also consistent with anatomical data related to the fungiform papillae on the tongue, which are lower in number in the allergic group. Furthermore, distinct oral microbial profiles were associated with allergic disease, with significant down-representations of the phylum Firmicutes and of the genera Veillonella spp., Streptococcus spp., Prevotella spp., and Neisseria spp. For the first time, this study emphasizes the link between sensory perception and food allergy, which is a novel and whole-organism view of this pathology. Our data indicated that an impaired taste perception, as regards both functionality and physiologically, was associated with food allergy, which marginally influences the food neophobia attitude. It is also accompanied by compositional shifts in oral microbiota, which is, in turn, another actor of this complex interplay and is deeply interconnected with mucosal immunity. This multidisciplinary research will likely open exciting new approaches to therapeutic interventions.
目前,儿童食物过敏的感觉感知和感觉表现的机制还远未被理解。同样,直到最近,单一的研究才提供了口服宿主共生环境,解决了花生过敏儿童的口腔微生物群落。为了弥合目前在感觉和微生物领域的知识差距,在过敏儿童(n=29)和健康的性别年龄匹配对照组(n=30)中进行了一项心理生理学病例对照研究。在过敏和非过敏儿童中比较了味觉感知、食物恐惧和喜好。同样的受试者通过唾液来评估口腔微生物群落的组成,以确定特定的特征是否与食物过敏儿童丧失口腔耐受性有关。我们的研究表明,与对照组相比,过敏组正确识别味觉的能力受损。这些结果也与舌头上的菌状乳头的解剖数据一致,菌状乳头在过敏组中数量较少。此外,与过敏疾病相关的口腔微生物特征明显不同,厚壁菌门和韦荣球菌属、链球菌属、普雷沃氏菌属和奈瑟菌属的丰度显著降低。这项研究首次强调了感觉感知和食物过敏之间的联系,这是对这种病理的一种新颖的、整体的观点。我们的数据表明,味觉感知受损,无论是在功能上还是在生理上,都与食物过敏有关,这对食物恐惧的态度有一定的影响。它还伴随着口腔微生物群落的组成变化,而口腔微生物群落又是这种复杂相互作用的另一个因素,与粘膜免疫密切相关。这项多学科研究可能会为治疗干预开辟令人兴奋的新途径。
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