Immune Health
| Year | Authors | Title | Summary | Published |
| 2021 | Cait A, Mooney A, Poyntz H, Shortt N, Jones A, Gestin A, Gell K, Grooby A, O’Sullivan D, Tang J, Young W, Thayabaran D, Sparks J, Ostapowicz T, Tay A, Poppitt S, Elliott S, Wakefield G, Parry-Strong A, Ralston J, Beasley R, Weatherall M, Braithwaite I, Forbes-Blom E, and Gasser O. | Potential Association Between Dietary Fibre and Humoral Response to the Seasonal Influenza Vaccine | Study reporting that dietary fibre may play a significant role in humoral vaccine responses. The project team determined fibre intake and the abundance of fibre-fermenting intestinal bacteria to be positively correlated with humoral influenza vaccine-specific immune responses in human vaccinees, albeit without reaching statistical significance. Importantly, this correlation was largely driven by first-time vaccinees; prior influenza vaccination negatively correlated with vaccine immunogenicity. In support of these observations, dietary fibre consumption significantly enhanced humoral influenza vaccine responses in mice, where the effect was mechanistically linked to short-chain fatty acids, the bacterial fermentation product of dietary fibre. Overall, these findings may bear significant importance for emerging infectious agents, such as COVID-19, and associated de novo vaccinations. |
Frontiers in Immunology |
| 2021 | Tang J.S., Cait A, Li Y, Abolins-Thompson H, Gell, K, Herst P.M, O’Sullivan, D, and Gasser, O. | Practical approach to explore the effects of polyphenols on aryl hydrocarbon receptor regulated immune function. | The ligand-activated aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is an important molecular regulator of immune function, whose activity can be modulated by dietary glucosinolate- and tryptophan-derived metabolites. In contrast, the potential use of polyphenols as dietary regulators of AhR-dependent immunity remains unclear. In this perspective, we discuss how cellular metabolism may alter the net effect of polyphenols on AhR, thus potentially reconciling some of the conflicting observations reported in the literature. We further provide a methodological roadmap, across the fields of immunology, metabolomics, and gut microbial ecology, to explore the potential effects of polyphenol-rich diets on AhR-regulated immune function in humans. |
J. Agric. Food Chem (2021)
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| 2020 | Shaw O, Hurst R, Sawyer G, Dinnan H, and Martell S. | Different immune and functional effects of urban dust and diesel particulate matter inhalation in a mouse model of acute air pollution exposure. | Study to determine immune effects and lung function of acute exposure to two different pollution sources using a mouse model. Although both urban dust and diesel particulate matter induced immune cell infiltration into the lung resulting in lung inflammation, their detrimental effects on cytokine production and lung function were quite different. |
Immunology and Cell Biology |
| 2020 | Tang JS, Compton BJ, Marshall A, Anderson R, Li Y, van der Woude H, Hermans IF, Painter GF, Gasser O. | Mānuka honey-derived methylglyoxal enhances microbial sensing by mucosal-associated invariant T cells. | This in vitro work demonstrates how methylglyoxal from Mānuka honey enhances the activation of antimicrobial MAIT cells of the immune system. This potentially posits Mānuka honey as an exogenous immune homeostatic modifier. |
Food and Function 11: 5782-5787
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| 2019 | Cong L, Bremer P, Mirosa M. | Chinese Consumers’ Perceptions of Functional Foods: A Netnography Study of Foods that Help the Immune System Recover from Air Pollution | Systematically using online searches to determine Chinese consumer views of effects of air pollution on their health and how food is used to remedy it, showed that respiratory impact was of most concern and traditional Chinese medicine and eating more fruits and vegetables were the main sought-after solutions. |
Journal of Food Products Marketing 25(6): 628-646 |
| 2019 | Miller M, Puddick J, Symonds JE, Walker SP. | Application of a Fourier transform—near infrared reflectance spectroscopy method for the rapid proximate analysis of the greenshell mussel (Perna canaliculus) and king (Chinook) salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) | To perform rapid compositional analysis on greenshell mussel and king salmon, Fourier transform-near infrared reflectance spectroscopy was trialled. This study validates the method against classical “wet chemistry”, which is expensive, wasteful and time-consuming in comparison. |
Aquaculture Research 50(6): 1668-1677 |
| 2019 | Siriarchavatana P, Kruger MC, Miller MR, Tian H, Wolber FM. | The preventive effects of green shelled mussel on early-stage metabolic osteoarthritis in rats with diet-induced obesity | This randomised controlled trial fed rats a normal diet or a high fat-high sugar diet, either supplemented with greenshell mussel powder or not. Those rats who received the greenshell mussel had lower concentrations of CTX-II, a biomarker involved in cartilage degeneration. |
Nutrients 11(7): 1601 |
| 2018 | Miller MR and Tian H. | Changes in proximate composition, lipid class and fatty acid profile in Greenshell™ mussels (Perna canaliculus) over an annual cycle | Analysis of Greenshell mussels showed that the nutritional payload was lowest in mussels harvested in winter, and highest in female mussels prior to spawning in spring. These species are a rich source of iron, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids; understanding their composition is needed to maximise their export potential. |
Aquaculture Research 49(3): 1153-1165 |
| 2018 | Shortt N, Poyntz H, Young W, Jones A, Gestin A, Mooney A, Thayabaran D, Sparks J, Ostapowicz T, Tay A, Poppitt SD, Elliott S, Wakefield G, Parry-Strong A, Ralston J, Gasser O, Beasley R, Weatherall M, Braithwaite I, Forbes-Blom E. | A feasibility study: Association between Gut Microbiota Enterotype and Antibody Response to Seasonal Trivalent Influenza Vaccine in Adults | Promisingly, the completion rate of the feasibility study is high, however certain exclusion criteria could limit recruitment. Further powered research on the relationship between microbiota composition and vaccine response is needed. |
Clinical Translational Immunology 7(3): e1013 |
| 2017 | van den Elsen LWJ, Poyntz H, Weyrich L, Young W, Forbes-Blom E. | Embracing the gut microbiota: the new frontier for inflammatory and infectious diseases | A review looking at the effect of gut microbiota modulation on immunity, and the implications of altering the gut microbiota to improve inflammatory diseases. |
Clinical & Translational Immunology 6(1): e125 |