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NOTHalf of the world's deaths among children under 5 are due to malnutrition. And those who manage to survive suffer long-term consequences, such as stunted growth and neurodevelopmental delays.
From nutrition bars to energy supplements, current nutritional deficit standards focus on the recommended amount of calories as well as individual nutrients.
But getting these supplies to those who need them can often be a challenge. These therapeutic food options can also be expensive. Even then, these foods are often very different – by their shape, texture and taste – from what people are culturally accustomed to and having them consumed regularly can be a problem.
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In search of better options, researchers decided to turn to the microbiome. In a study published Thursday in Science, they describe how a diet favoring certain microbial species in the intestines seems to help more malnourished children in Bangladesh than a standard treatment.
To understand the disappearances of malnourished children, the researchers first turned to healthy children in a slum in Bangladesh. They took stool samples once a month in the first years of their lives and then analyzed the microbial composition of the children's digestive tract.
Healthy microbiomes were then compared to the microbiomes of malnourished children. Using machine learning algorithms, scientists were able to identify a small group of organisms in the belly of the child in good health but absent or in different proportions in that of the malnourished child.
After extensive research, the researchers discovered that a combination of chickpeas, bananas, soy flour, peanuts and a few other foods would promote the growth of these healthy intestinal microbes. In a clinical trial of 63 malnourished children aged 12 to 18 months, about a quarter of them dieted on these foods and after one month of treatment they did better than other groups of children in the study.
STAT has spoken with Jeffrey Gordon, a microbiology researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the new study, to find out more. This interview was condensed and slightly modified.
How did you find the foods included in the diet you tested?
Any solution must be culturally acceptable and affordable. We turned to foods normally eaten by children in this region. The lab people then examined these complementary food ingredients in different combinations and found combinations that stimulated the growth of the [microbial] community.
Why was not it enough to just focus on height and weight as health measures?
A key commitment on our part was to obtain a more complete molecular description of the biology of these healthy children. With new technologies, we can literally measure more than 1,000 different proteins that regulate the growth of bones, proteins that regulate metabolism, proteins associated with brain development, associated with immune function, and that have given us a signature much more complete health. We were armed with a much larger toolbox to measure the effects of these new guidelines on the microbiome.
What did you find surprising or unexpected about what you found?
The extent to which repair of the intestinal community was associated with effects on many different aspects and mediators of growth. So, the idea that this [microbial] the effects of the community go far beyond the wall of the intestines to influence as many different systems.
And what is the takeaway here?
[It shows] how healthy development of the intestinal community can be important for healthy growth. The ability to be good stewards of the healthy development of the microbial community of an infant or child could have very long-term effects on their biology, health status and even the risk of disease. In the two years since birth, so we have a window of opportunity to monitor the development of a microbial community and do everything that we could be able to do in a very enlightened sense and scientifically based to help guide the development of healthy [microbial] community.
And after?
We need to determine to what extent the effects are generalizable and to what extent they are sustainable. [Nutrition] is a key element of human development and if we are trying to affect catch-up growth, we want to make sure that long-term effects are beneficial. We are also working to identify the representation of ingredients in different foods to find out which chemical signatures are involved.
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