“…The human milk microbiota may contribute to, at least, some of the functional properties and health benefits that epidemiological studies have associated with breastfeeding (Renfrew et al, 2012), including protection against infections, metabolic programming, immunomodulation and neuromodulation. Human milk bacteria may provide a certain degree of protection against infections caused by viruses, bacteria or fungi through a variety of mechanisms: (a) biosynthesis of compounds with antimicrobial activity, including organic acids (lactic acid, acetic acid, ethanol), bacteriocins, reuterin or hydrogen peroxide (Heikkilä and Saris, 2003;Beasley and Saris, 2004;Martıń et al, 2005;Martıń et al, 2006;Caŕdenas et al, 2016;Caŕdenas et al, 2019;Angelopoulou et al, 2020;Garcıá-Gutierrez et al, 2020); (b) coaggregation with pathobionts, impeding their access to the gut epithelial cells (Caŕdenas et al, 2019); (c) competitive exclusion with pathobionts for nutrients or host receptors (Olivares et al, 2006a;Martıń et al, 2010;Langa et al, 2012); (d) reinforcement of the infant gut barrier by preserving and decreasing intestinal permeability and increasing mucin biosynthesis (Olivares et al, 2006a;Vanhaecke et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2020); and (e) inmmunomodulation (Liu et al, 2020).…”