About this Research Topic
Early life provides a narrow time period—a window of opportunity—for shaping and priming the immune system. Recent studies in animal models and humans suggest that during the late fetal stages or the short neonatal period, bacteria and their primary or secondary associated metabolites modulate the immune system development leading to alteration in fighting infection or developing autoimmune diseases. Since the early-life microbiome has a crucial role in educating the immune system, it is important to view early-life microbial colonization as distinct from the colonization in the later stage of life and understand how minor alterations to the relatively simple newborn gut microbiome can manifest as more significant ramifications during later stages of life.
The goal of this research topic is to promote a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms explaining the influence of the early life microbial communities on the immune system development or response, including the interactions of the microbiotas and their associated metabolites with the innate and adaptive immune system, modulation of the transcription factors, epigenetic modifications. The links and, ideally, the mechanisms by which the early life communities can influence the immune system development and function are of interest to this research topic. This influence can include interactions of the microbiota with pattern recognition receptors and the influence of the microbiota-associated metabolites on the modulation of enzymes and transcription factors.
We invite authors for original articles, reviews, and opinions. Topics of interest in this special edition include, but are not limited to the following sub-topics:
• Early life microbiome and its impact on later stages of life phenomena, such as immune reactivity, atopy, and immune system response to vaccines or infectious agents.
• The contribution of the components of the materno-fetal milieu that impacts immune system development.
• Approaches such as metabolomic, genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic to investigate the multi-system interactions between microbiome in infancy and shaping the immune system.
• Elucidating the impact of microbiome modulation (including but not limited to using pre-, probiotics, and antimicrobials) on immune system development or healthspan.
The goal of this research topic is to promote a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms explaining the influence of the early life microbial communities on the immune system development or response, including the interactions of the microbiotas and their associated metabolites with the innate and adaptive immune system, modulation of the transcription factors, epigenetic modifications. The links and, ideally, the mechanisms by which the early life communities can influence the immune system development and function are of interest to this research topic. This influence can include interactions of the microbiota with pattern recognition receptors and the influence of the microbiota-associated metabolites on the modulation of enzymes and transcription factors.
We invite authors for original articles, reviews, and opinions. Topics of interest in this special edition include, but are not limited to the following sub-topics:
• Early life microbiome and its impact on later stages of life phenomena, such as immune reactivity, atopy, and immune system response to vaccines or infectious agents.
• The contribution of the components of the materno-fetal milieu that impacts immune system development.
• Approaches such as metabolomic, genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic to investigate the multi-system interactions between microbiome in infancy and shaping the immune system.
• Elucidating the impact of microbiome modulation (including but not limited to using pre-, probiotics, and antimicrobials) on immune system development or healthspan.
Keywords: microbiome, microbiota, animal models, germ-free, immune system development, immune reactivity, dysbiosis, atopy, vaccine response, host-microbe interactions, antibiotic, healthspan
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
