CAG Modulating the Infant Microbiome for Disease Prevention (MICROBIOME)

In the Western world the prevalence of asthma and other chronic inflammatory diseases has more than doubled over the last 50 years. Between 250,000 and 300,000 adult Danes have been diagnosed with asthma, and a total of 7-10 per cent of all schoolchildren in Denmark suffer from asthma.

CAG Modulating the Infant Microbiome for Disease Prevention will therefore seek to improve prevention of chronic inflammatory diseases and treatment of paediatric asthma.

The CAG will strengthen existing knowledge of the role of intestinal bacteria in the development of chronic inflammatory diseases among children. Imbalance in the bacterial composition and maturation of the intestines and airways can affect children’s risk of developing asthma later in life. The overall aim of the CAG is therefore to understand the connection between the infant microbiome and the development of chronic inflammatory diseases.

The studies of the CAG will be based on a large amount of unique data collected from a mother-child group within the COPSAC2010 project. Over the last eight years the project has followed children with an imbalance in the bacterial compositions and thus increased risk of developing diseases. The mother-child group data offers a unique opportunity to outline the mechanisms that link the infant microbiome – before the emergence of disease – to the development of common chronic inflammatory diseases.

The CAG will seek to develop new strategies for prevention and effective intervention targeted at the microbiome to protect the child from diseases.