A Potential Role for Epigenetically Mediated Trained Immunity in Food Allergy
Samira Imran,
Melanie R. Neeland,
Rebecca Shepherd,
Nicole Messina,
Kirsten P. Perrett,
Mihai G. Netea,
Nigel Curtis,
Richard Saffery,
Boris Novakovic
Affiliations
Samira Imran
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Melanie R. Neeland
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Rebecca Shepherd
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Nicole Messina
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Kirsten P. Perrett
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia; Department of Allergy and Immunology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Mihai G. Netea
Department of Internal Medicine and Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands; Department for Genomics and Immunoregulation, Life and Medical Sciences Institute (LIMES), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Nigel Curtis
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Richard Saffery
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Boris Novakovic
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia; Corresponding author
The prevalence of IgE-mediated food allergy is increasing at a rapid pace in many countries. The association of high food allergy rates with Westernized lifestyles suggests the role of gene-environment interactions, potentially underpinned by epigenetic variation, in mediating this process. Recent studies have implicated innate immune system dysfunction in the development and persistence of food allergy. These responses are characterized by increased circulating frequency of innate immune cells and heightened inflammatory responses to bacterial stimulation in food allergic patients. These signatures mirror those described in trained immunity, whereby innate immune cells retain a “memory” of earlier microbial encounters, thus influencing subsequent immune responses. Here, we propose that a robust multi-omics approach that integrates immunological, transcriptomic, and epigenomic datasets, combined with well-phenotyped and longitudinal food allergy cohorts, can inform the potential role of trained immunity in food allergy.
