breastfeeding infants Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Breast Milk Antibodies Linked to Protection Against Rotavirus in Infants

The AHA! Team — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 06:40:26 +0000

University of Rochester Medical Center via News-Medical – Babies whose mothers had high levels of specific antibodies in their breast milk were able to fend off the infection for a longer period than infants whose mothers had lower levels. A study led by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that breast milk provides protection against rotavirus, a common gastrointestinal disease that causes diarrhea, vomiting and fever in infants. Babies whose mothers had high levels of specific antibodies in their breast milk were able to fend off the infection for a longer period than infants whose mothers had lower levels. The findings are expected to drive future research to improve infant health through optimized breastfeeding practices. Published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the study also found significant differences in antibody profiles in breast milk between mothers in high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Researchers analyzed human milk samples from 695 women in Finland, the U.S., Pakistan, Peru, and Bangladesh, and measured specific IgA and IgG antibodies, which are common antibodies produced in breast milk, against 1,607 proteins from 30 pathogens. Researchers analyzed human milk samples from 695 women in Finland, the U.S., Pakistan, Peru, and Bangladesh The research, led by Dr. Kirsi Jarvinen-Seppo, MD, PhD, professor in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at UR Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital (GCH), tracked antibody levels and kinetics over time to analyze antibody responses to a wide range of respiratory, diarrheal and sepsis pathogens in human milk. The study’s primary aim was to understand the protective properties of these antibodies and how they vary across different geographic and economic regions. “We would expect to find differences in antibody levels in different countries, due to different diseases circulating among areas of the world, but this is one of the first times that there’s been a head-to-head comparison for dozens of pathogens across several continents. It was encouraging to see such a clear link between higher antibody levels and a delay to rotavirus infection, and this was consistently observed among an independent validation cohort.” Dr. Kirsi Jarvinen-Seppo, MD, PhD, Professor in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at UR Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital (GCH) Other notable findings from the study: Milk from women in LMICs had higher levels of IgA and IgG antibodies against various intestinal and respiratory pathogens compared to milk from HICs. This difference was particularly notable for pathogens such as Shigella and pneumococcus, which are major contributors to morbidity and mortality in young children. Higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with lower antibody levels, which went against expectations. “The variation in antibody profiles between regions highlights the impact of economic and environmental factors on maternal immunity,” said Jarvinen-Seppo. In addition to Rotavirus findings, the discovery that a higher BMI was associated with lower antibody counts in breast milk was also unexpected. “We had anticipated that underweight mothers might have lower antibody levels due to poorer nutritional status,” said Jarvinen-Seppo. “Due to rising obesity rates worldwide, this could be a significant finding, but this is preliminary and additional research is needed since this is the first time this has been measured.” “While the data on rotavirus protection is compelling, the geographical and BMI-related variations highlight areas where further research is essential. The study sets the stage for additional investigations that could lead to better understanding and interventions for improving infant health globally,” said Jarvinen-Seppo. Source: University of Rochester Medical Center Journal reference: Campo, J. J., et al. (2024). Human milk antibodies to global pathogens reveal geographic and interindividual variations in IgA and IgG. Journal of Clinical Investigation. doi.org/10.1172/jci168789. To read the original article click here.

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Newly Identified Lipid in Breast Milk Might Reduce Cerebral Palsy in Infants

The AHA! Team — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 08:15:57 +0000

Duke Health – In animal studies, the fat molecule encourages stem cells to generate new cells that produce the brain’s white matter About 60,000 babies are born before 32 weeks’ gestation in the United States every year, and 10% of them will develop cerebral palsy resulting from infections that damage nerve fibers deep in the brain called white matter. 60,000 babies are born before 32 weeks’ gestation in the United States every year While it’s known that the white matter loss will lead to neurological deficits, there is currently no treatment to help these infants avoid the outcome. In experiments using neonatal mice, researchers at Duke Health have identified a fatty molecule in breast milk that triggers a process in which stem cells in the brain produce cells that create new white matter, reversing the injury. The study appears Aug. 3 in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Eric Benner, M.D., Ph.D., is the study’s corresponding author and is a distinguished assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine. Benner said further study in a clinical trial is needed, but the finding is promising. “Developing therapies for children — especially such medically fragile children — is very difficult to do because there are justifiably strict safety concerns,” Benner said. “The fact that this molecule is already found in something that is safe for premature babies – breast milk – is extremely encouraging. There are many types of fats in breast milk “It’s been known that fats in breast milk benefit a child’s brain development, but there are many types of fats in breast milk,” Benner said. “This work has identified a lipid molecule in breast milk that promotes white matter development. Now, we can begin to develop a therapy that isolates and delivers this lipid in a way that is safe for the unique challenges of these infants.” Benner is a neonatologist at Duke University and one of the co-founders of Tellus Therapeutics, a Duke spinout company developed with the help of the Duke University Office for Translation & Commercialization to bring this therapy from the bench into the neonatal intensive care unit. The fatty molecule identified in the study will be administered intravenously to patients in an upcoming clinical trial. This is significant because many of the infants who are part of this vulnerable population also have gastrointestinal issues and cannot safely be given milk or medication by mouth. The lipid molecule enters the brain and binds with stem cells there, encouraging the stem cells to become or produce a type of cell called oligodendrocytes. The oligodendrocytes are like a hub that allow for the production of white matter in the central nervous system. This newly produced white matter in pre-term infants prevents the neurological damage that would otherwise impact the child’s ability to move – the hallmarks of cerebral palsy. “The timing of brain injury is extremely difficult to predict, thus a treatment that could be safely given to all preterm babies at risk would be revolutionary,” said Agnes Chao, M.D., a former fellow in the Division of Neonatology and first author of the paper. The timing of brain injury is extremely difficult to predict “As a neonatologist, I’m so excited that I may be able to offer a treatment to families with babies that are affected by preterm brain injury who would otherwise have no other options,” Chao said. In addition to Benner and Chao, study authors include Pavle Matak, Kelly Pegram, James Powers, Collin Hutson, Rebecca Jo, Laura Dubois, J. Will Thompson, P. Brian Smith, Jason R. Gibson, Noelle E. Younge, Blaire Rikard, Simon G. Gregory, Ronald N. Goldberg, Mari L Shinohara, Estefany Y. Reyes, Chunlei Liu. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (1R01NS114578, T32HD094671, K12HD043494, T32HD043728, R01AG070826, R01MH127104, P41EB015897, 1UL1-TR002553), Jean and George Brumley Jr. Neonatal Perinatal Research Institute, with additional support from the Duke Scholars Award from the School of Medicine, Duke University Center for In Vivo Microscopy, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. To read the original article click here.

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Gut Flora Disruption in Infancy Linked to Autism & ADHD

The AHA! Team — Thu, 09 May 2024 20:05:19 +0000

Linköping University via News-Medical – Disturbed gut flora during the first years of life is associated with diagnoses such as autism and ADHD later in life. This is according to a study led by researchers at the University of Florida and Linköping University and published in the journal Cell. The study is the first forward-looking, or prospective, study to examine gut flora composition and a large variety of other factors in infants, in relation to the development of the children’s nervous system. The researchers have found many biological markers that seem to be associated with future neurological development disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, communication disorder and intellectual disability. “The remarkable aspect of the work is that these biomarkers are found at birth in cord blood or in the child’s stool at one year of age over a decade prior to the diagnosis,” says Eric W Triplett, professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida, USA, one of the researchers who led the study. 16,000 children born in 1997-1999, representing the general population, have been followed from birth into their twenties The study is part of the ABIS (All Babies in Southeast Sweden) study led by Johnny Ludvigsson at Linköping University. More than 16,000 children born in 1997-1999, representing the general population, have been followed from birth into their twenties. Of these, 1,197 children, corresponding to 7.3 percent, have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, communication disorder or intellectual disability. A large number of lifestyle and environmental factors have been identified through surveys conducted on several occasions during the children’s upbringing. For some of the children, the researchers have analysed substances in umbilical cord blood and bacteria in their stool at the age of one. “We can see in the study that there are clear differences in the intestinal flora already during the first year of life between those who develop autism or ADHD and those who don’t. We’ve found associations with some factors that affect gut bacteria, such as antibiotic treatment during the child’s first year, which is linked to an increased risk of these diseases,” says Johnny Ludvigsson, senior professor at the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at Linköping University, who led the study together with Eric W. Triplett. Children who had repeated ear infections during their first year of life had an increased risk of being diagnosed with a developmental neurological disorder later in life. It is probably not the infection itself that is the culprit, but the researchers suspect a link to antibiotic treatment. They found that the presence of Citrobacter bacteria or the absence of Coprococcus bacteria increased the risk of future diagnosis. One possible explanation may be that antibiotic treatment has disturbed the composition of the gut flora One possible explanation may be that antibiotic treatment has disturbed the composition of the gut flora in a way that contributes to neurodevelopmental disorders. The risk of antibiotic treatment damaging the gut flora and increasing the risk of diseases linked to the immune system, such as type 1 diabetes and childhood rheumatism, has been shown in previous studies. “Coprococcus and Akkermansia muciniphila have potential protective effects. These bacteria were correlated with important substances in the stool, such as vitamin B and precursors to neurotransmitters which play vital roles orchestrating signaling in the brain. Overall, we saw deficits in these bacteria in children who later received a developmental neurological diagnosis.” -Angelica Ahrens, Assistant Scientist in Eric Triplett’s research group at the University of Florida and first author of the study The present study also confirms that the risk of developmental neurological diagnosis in the child increases if the parents smoke. Conversely, breastfeeding has a protective effect, according to the study. In cord blood taken at the birth of children, the researchers analysed the amounts of various substances from the body’s metabolism, such as fatty acids and amino acids. They also measured some harmful substances that come from outside, such as nicotine and environmental toxins. They compared substances in the umbilical cord blood of 27 children diagnosed with autism with the same number of children without a diagnosis. Children who were later diagnosed had low levels of several important fats in the umbilical cord blood It turned out that children who were later diagnosed had low levels of several important fats in the umbilical cord blood. One of these was linolenic acid, which is needed for the formation of omega 3 fatty acids that are anti-inflammatory and have several other effects in the brain. The same group also had higher levels than the control group of a PFAS substance, a group of substances used as flame retardants and shown to negatively affect the immune system in several different ways. PFAS substances can enter the body via drinking water, food and the air we breathe. It is not certain that the relationships that the research team found in the Swedish children can be generalised to other populations, but these issues need to be studied in other groups as well. Another question is whether gut flora imbalance is a triggering factor or whether it has occurred as a result of underlying factors, such as diet or antibiotics. However, even when the researchers accounted for risk factors that might affect the gut flora, they found that the link between future diagnosis remained for many of the bacteria. This indicates that some of the differences in gut flora between children with and without future diagnosis are not explained by such risk factors. The research is at an early stage and more studies are needed, but the discovery that many biomarkers for future developmental neurological disorders can be observed at an early age opens up the possibility of developing screening protocols and preventive measures in the long term. The study has been funded with support from, among others, JDRF, Horizon Europe, Barndiabetesfonden (the Swedish Child Diabetes Foundation), Forte and the Swedish Research Council. Source: Linköping University Journal reference: Ahrens, A. P., et al. (2024). Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. Cell. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.035. To read the original article click here.

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New Study Reveals How Gut Microbes May Contribute to the Beneficial Effects of Breastfeeding

AHA Publisher — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 08:00:37 +0000

DTU (Technical University of Denmark) via News-Medical – It is widely acknowledged that breastfeeding benefits the health of infants. However, there is still a lack of solid evidence to document what happens in the gut of breastfed babies and how gut microbes may contribute to these beneficial effects. It has long been known that certain gut bacteria—bifidobacteria—are prevalent in the gut of breastfed infants. Although these bifidobacteria are considered beneficial, the reason why has so far been unclear. A new study has shown that the types of bifidobacteria, which utilize components of breastmilk to grow in the gut of infants, contain a particular enzyme. This enzyme enables the bacteria to produce small molecules that are believed to have a beneficial effect on the immune system. Researchers from the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, and the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen led the study, which has been published in Nature Microbiology. Unintended Discovery The idea for the project arose five years ago, when the driving forces behind the project, Martin Frederik Laursen and Henrik Munch Roager, made a discovery by coincidence while they were colleagues in the Research Group for Gut, Microbes and Health at the National Food Institute. The discovery piqued their curiosity to such an extent that they launched the project, which has been completed with a very small budget, a strong drive and persistence, and—importantly—support from within the research group. “It all started on a winter morning five years ago when we stumbled upon the fact that infant stool samples contained remarkably high levels of a certain molecule. And now we know that this particular molecule could be key in our understanding of how bifidobacteria help strengthening breastfed children’s immune system,” says Henrik Munch Roager, who was the principal investigator on the study and is now Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen. The researchers’ focus has been to understand the reason why such high concentrations of these substances—the so-called aromatic lactic acids—are present in breastfed infants’ faeces, and how they potentially could affect the health of infants. “Experiments in the lab have shown us that the aromatic lactic acids, which the bifidobacteria produce in the gut, can affect the activity of immune cells in what we would consider to be a beneficial direction in relation to a well-balanced immune response. This could prove relevant when for example the infant’s immune system is fighting an infection,” senior researcher Martin Frederik Laursen from the National Food Institute explains. Raises More Interesting Questions The study design did not allow the researcher to look at the incidence of disease among the infants who participated. Therefore, a natural follow-up study would look at the connections between the aromatic lactic acids, the development of the immune system early in life and their role in preventing disease. “More studies are needed to be able to prove whether the immune effects observed in the laboratory, also apply to infants and to what extent these effects provide protection against infections and immune-related diseases later in life,” says Martin Frederik Laursen and adds: “Furthermore, we do not know if there is a window where this effect of breastfeeding is particularly important in order to achieve the optimal effect on the immune system. Naturally, it is interesting and relevant to investigate this further.” Knowledge Might Be Useful for Improving Infant Formulas The researchers hope that down the line, the results of the study can pave the way for new, targeted ways of strengthening children’s immune systems in early life. “The results of the study are useful for supporting measures aimed at helping children develop a balanced gut microbiota, which supports a well-functioning immune system. Such measures include supporting breastfeeding and developing new types of infant formula and probiotics that promote the presence of these bifidobacteria in life early,” says Henrik Munch Roager. Caption: The studied bifidobacteria utilize certain carbohydrates (human milk oligosaccharides) in breastmilk to grow in the gut where they transform aromatic amino acids (which are also found in breastmilk) into aromatic lactic acids. The production of these aromatic lactic acids in the gut probably has a beneficial effect on the infants’ immune system. Caption: During the course of the study, Henrik Munch Roager (left) and Martin Frederik Laursen both became dads (again). Source: DTU (Technical University of Denmark) Journal reference: Laursen, M.F., et al. (2021) Bifidobacterium species associated with breastfeeding produce aromatic lactic acids in the infant gut. Nature Microbiology. doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00970-4. To read the original article click here.

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Reducing Aluminium Intake Can Minimize Potential Health Risks

AHA Publisher — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 08:00:19 +0000

BFR Federal Institute for Risk Assessment via EurekAlert – Consumers can take up aluminium compounds from various sources, such as food, cosmetic products like aluminum containing antiperspirants and toothpaste, food contact materials like uncoated aluminum menu or baking trays and drugs. For the first time, the BfR has now estimated the total aluminum intake for different age groups (infants, children and adolescents as well as adults) and carried out a risk assessment. In addition, the contributions of the various sources of total aluminium intake by the population were compared with one another. A high intake of aluminium compounds can cause, among other things, neurotoxic developmental disorders as well as damage the kidneys, liver and bones. The BfR bases its assessment of the population’s aluminium intake from food on the latest consumption and concentration data. Consumption data are collected through consumer surveys and provide information on which foods and how much of them are eaten by different consumer groups. The concentration data used show the average aluminium concentrations in the different food categories. For non-food products, such as cosmetics or packaging, the exposure assessment is also based on data regarding aluminium contents in the products. Furthermore, typical application forms and quantities are taken into account. For the risk assessment of aluminium intake, the BfR uses the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) derived from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of 1 milligram aluminium per kilogram body weight. The BfR’s assessment shows that aluminium intake from food is lower compared to previous studies. Food is still a relevant, but no longer the population’s main source of intake. If other relevant sources of aluminium intake are taken into account, such as aluminium containing cosmetic products and uncoated food contact materials, the total intake can exhaust or even exceed the TWI for all age groups. Consumers can influence their aluminium intake. Those who want to reduce their aluminium intake should use aluminium containing antiperspirants and toothpaste sparingly. When it comes to food, the BfR recommends a varied diet as well as alternating products and brands. This can contribute to reducing the risk of permanently high aluminium intake caused by individual highly contaminated products. The BfR recommends, also for other reasons, exclusively breastfeeding infants in the first six months of life, if possible. The BfR generally advises against the preparation and storage of, in particular, acidic and salty foods in uncoated aluminium articles or aluminium foil. If the aforementioned and avoidable sources of intake are reduced, most consumers are not expected to suffer any adverse health effects. The BfR recommends that manufacturers take appropriate measures to reduce the amount of aluminium in food. These may include, for example, using raw materials with low aluminium content or coated materials for processing and packaging food. There is still a high level of uncertainty in aluminium risk assessment because important data is still missing or can be interpreted differently. This concerns, for example, the question of how much aluminium is actually absorbed through the skin as well as the possible occurrence of certain long-term consequences of chronic exposure to aluminium. To read the original article click here.

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