Study Links Antibiotic Use To More Severe Allergic Asthma Cases

Study Links Antibiotic Use To More Severe Allergic Asthma Cases

A study conducted by researchers at University of British Columbia found out that the increased incidence and severity of allergies asthma in early life is correlated to the wide use of antibiotics. The study was published today in the journal EMBO reports.
The prevalence of allergic asthma is increasing by 5 per cent every decade, particularly in industrialized countries, and it affects nowadays more that 100 million people worldwide. The Asthma Society of Canada estimates that 12 per cent of children in Canada have been diagnosed with allergic asthma.

Antibiotic Drugs

The antibiotics that are active against intestinal bacteria also influence allergic asthma. UBC microbiologist Brett Finlay, the study’s author said “It has long been suspected that kids exposed to more antibiotics “ like those in developed countries “ are more prone to allergic asthma. Our study is the first experimental proof that shows how.”

The antibiotics studied by Finley’s team at UBC’s Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology and Michael Smith Laboratories were vancomycin and streptomycin. There are two widely used antibiotics that also act against the intestinal bacteria. They found that vancomycin aggravates the asthma symptomatology in mice models, but it does not  increase the mice’s susceptibility to develop asthma. This proves that the immune system established in early life is a critical factor that protects the individual from developing asthma.

There are approximately 1,000 species of  bacteria in the human intestine with a total of 100 trillion of individual bacterial cells that form the intestinal flora. These bacteria are very important in performing multiple functions in the body. “Modern societal practices, such as improved sanitation methods and widespread antibiotic use, are causing the disappearance of ancestral species of bacteria in our gut that may be critical to a healthy immune system,” says Finlay.

“Our study shows this is the case with certain antibiotics and allergic asthma, and the gut-lung connection is also consistent with observations that incidence of asthma has not increased significantly in developing countries where antibiotic use is less prevalent “ and in turn, the gut flora is permitted to fully develop.”

“It has been recognized that microbes play an important role in human health “ and we are discovering that a disruption of these bugs is associated with a number of chronic health conditions. The important results from Prof. Finlay’s team confirm that giving antibiotics to young children, which disturb their normal bacterial flora, should not be taken lightly” added Marc Ouellette, Scientific Director of CIHR’s Institute of Infection and Immunity.