A systematic review: polyphenol's effect on food allergy via microbiome modulation

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Microbiology
• Nutrition Science

Background:

• Food allergy is a growing global health issue.
• Polyphenols, microbes, and food allergies are interconnected, but research on polyphenol-induced microbiome modulation in food allergy is limited.
• There's a lack of established patterns in how polyphenols affect the microbiome to combat food allergies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and summarize the current understanding of how polyphenols influence food allergies by modulating the gut microbiome.
• To identify potential microbiome modulation patterns associated with polyphenol interventions for food allergies.

Main Methods:

• Systematic search of Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science databases.
• Inclusion of in vivo and in vitro studies, assessed for risk of bias and methodological quality.
• Narrative synthesis of extracted data on population characteristics and experimental details.

Main Results:

• Common food allergies studied include egg (54%), milk (23%), soybean (15%), and shrimp (8%).
• Various polyphenols like cocoa, cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G), and green tea polyphenol (GTP) were investigated.
• Polyphenols altered gut microbial composition, reducing beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus and increasing potentially harmful ones like Prevotella, thereby attenuating food allergies.

Conclusions:

• Variability in polyphenol types, food allergens, animal models, and microbiome analysis techniques contributes to diverse results.
• Future studies should focus on individual food allergies, employ higher taxonomic resolution techniques like shotgun metagenomics, and integrate metabolomics for enhanced reliability.