CALL: Mécénat des Mutuelles AXA (2024)

Title: Prevention of child allergies through a maternal nutritional strategy with prebiotics. 

Acronym: PREVALLMAT

Period: 2025-2028

Partners: Sébastien Barbarot (Nantes, France), Hervé Blottière (Nantes, France), Sophie Brouard (Nantes, France), Martin LARSEN (Paris, France) and Marie BODINIER (Coordinator, Nantes, France).

Objectives

The challenge of the PREVALLMAT project is to develop a maternal nutritional strategy capable of modulating the microbiota and preventing atopic diseases in children. This project will also help decipher the early mechanisms and biomarkers involved in the development or prevention of atopic diseases.

Research questions:

1/ Can maternal prebiotic intervention during pregnancy prevent atopic diseases in children?

2/ What are the microbial and immune mechanisms associated with atopic diseases?

3/ Are there microbial and immune biomarkers/signatures in the mother and/or children that predict or are associated with the onset or prevention of atopic diseases?

4/ What microbial and immune characteristics transferred from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding are associated with the onset or prevention of allergies during childhood?

Project objectives: The PREVALLMAT project aims to evaluate the mechanisms of interaction between food supplements, particularly prebiotics, and the microbiome. We also aim to assess the downstream impact on barrier integrity, host immunity, and ultimately the onset or prevention of atopic diseases. Finally, we aim to define the mechanisms of development of atopic diseases during early childhood. Our project therefore fits perfectly with the objectives of the AXA call for projects, which integrates prevention as a priority axis during youth by targeting chronic diseases such as allergies.