A Placebo-controlled double-blinded test of the biodiversity hypothesis of immune-mediated diseases: Environmental microbial diversity elicits changes in cytokines and increase in T regulatory cells in young children

Cinek, Ondřej; Kramná, Lenka; Schroderus, Anna-Mari; Kinnunen, Tuure; Cerrone, Damiano; Grönroos, Mira; Laitinen, Olli H.; Luukkonen, Anna; Mäkelä, Iida; Nurminen, Noora; Oikarinen, Sami; Hui, Nan; Puhakka, Riikka; Roslund, Marja I.; Saarenpää, Mika; Soininen, Laura; Rajaniemi, Juho; Hyöty, Heikki; Sinkkonen, Aki

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113900

Cited by 48 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Living in cities comes with reduced exposure to biodiversity and may subsequently lead to the human immune system being poorly trained and over-sensitive to normally innocuous agents (e.g., dust particles, pollen) 30,94 . There is increasing evidence that biodiverse green spaces-and their soils in particular-can enhance human health by exposing people to diverse beneficial environmental microbiota 30,[95][96][97][98] . Exposure to natural soil biodiversity may help build up immune fitness and promote human health via multiple pathways, including improved immunoregulation, anxiety reduction, provisioning of key metabolites (e.g., short chain fatty acids), and supporting metabolic health via a balanced functional profile of gut microbiota [99][100][101] .…”

Section: Enhancing Human Immunoregulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing soil biodiversity to promote human health in cities

et al. 2023

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Biodiversity is widely linked to human health, however, connections between human health and soil biodiversity in urban environments remain poorly understood. Here, we stress that reductions in urban soil biodiversity elevate risks to human health, but soil biodiversity can improve human health through pathways including suppressing pathogens, remediating soil, shaping a beneficial human microbiome and promoting immune fitness. We argue that targeted enhancement of urban soil biodiversity could support human health, in both outdoor and indoor settings. The potential of enhanced urban soil biodiversity to benefit human health reflects an important yet understudied field of fundamental and applied research.

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Section: Enhancing Human Immunoregulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing soil biodiversity to promote human health in cities

et al. 2023

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“…To an increasing extent, studies have shown that the interaction between human and environmental microbiomes affects human health and the prevalence of NCDs (Ahn and Hayes, 2021;Panthee et al, 2022). Roslund et al (2022) investigated the impact of biodiversity on immune tolerance using a double-blind and placebo-controlled intervention trial. The results showed that the immune responses of children in the intervention group differed from those of children in the placebo group.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Microbiota shaping and bioburden monitoring of indoor antimicrobial surfaces

Mäki

Salonen²,

Kivisaari³

et al. 2023

Front. Built Environ.

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Indoor residents are constantly exposed to dynamic microbiota that have significant health effects. In addition to hand hygiene, cleaning, and disinfection, antimicrobial coatings (AMCs) can prevent the spread of infectious diseases in public areas. The sustainable use of antimicrobial-coated products requires an assessment of their pros and cons for human health and the environment. The toxicity and resistance risks of AMCs have been considered, but large-scale genetic studies on the microbial community compositions and resistomes of AMCs are scarce. The use of an AMC can reduce the total number of microbes on a surface but poses the risk of dysbiosis, microbial imbalance, such as the polarized growth of metallophilic, metal- and antimicrobial-resistant, and other survivor bacteria, and the overall reduction of microbial diversity. Loss of diversity may lead to the enrichment of harmful bacteria and an increased risk of communicable or immunological non-communicable inflammatory diseases (NCDs). In public buildings, such as kindergartens and nursing homes for the elderly, the use of AMCs is likely to increase due to epidemics and pandemics in recent years. Therefore, comprehensive metagenomic research is needed to monitor the effects of AMCs on indoor microbial community compositions and functions. Although the determination of good indoor microbiota and homeostasis is difficult, microbial communities that have health-protective or harmful effects can and should be identified using a metagenomic sequencing approach before the large-scale implementation of AMCs.

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“…Gut microbiota appears to have a direct role in regulating the magnitude of COVID-19 severity via the modulation of host immune responses 21 , 22 and is influenced by exposure to environmental microbiota. 23 , 24 , 25 Environmental microbiota exposures and immune training can enhance protection against infections and autoimmune responses 26 and, therefore, improve immune-mediated responses to the multifaceted effects of COVID-19. Moreover, a randomised controlled trial in mice showed an anxiety-reducing effect of trace amounts of soil-associated butyrate-producing bacteria, which was found particularly in biodiverse soils.…”

Section: Engaging With Nature To Improve Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 27 There are probably microbiota-derived health benefits associated with restoring biodiverse environments ( figure 2 A). These benefits might result from enhancing opportunities for interactions with immunoregulatory microbiota, 23 , 24 , 25 and provision of biogenic compounds, such as phytoncides, which can improve resilience to viral infections via immune priming. Furthermore, ecosystem restoration should also increase regulating ecosystem services, with relevance to COVID-19.…”

Section: Ecosystem Restoration: a Public Health Interventionmentioning

confidence: 99%