Durante los días 1 y 2 de octubre, en Málaga se celebraron reuniones de trabajo del proyecto Europeo DIFAMEM, cuya coordinación es liderada por la Dra. María José Torres, coordinadora del Área 4 de IBIMA.

El proyecto se centra en el estudio del efecto de un prebiótico como la pectina en pacientes con alergia a alimentos y su interacción a nivel inmunológico y ómicos (microbioma, epigenoma y metbaoloma).

Proyecto DIFAMEM

Dietary Intervention in Food Allergy: Microbiome, Epigenetic and Metabolomic interactions

• Contacto: Maria José Torres Jaén (mjtorresj@ibima.eu). Coordinadora del proyecto e Investigadora principal
• Financiado por: JPI HDHL
• Duración: 01/01/2019-31/12/2021
• Socios del proyecto:
  – IBIMA (coordinador del proyecto) (España)
  – Universidad San Pablo CEU (España)
  – Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI) (Alemania)
  – University Regional Hospital Center of Nancy (Francia)



Cumulative evidence suggests that food allergy (FA) is associated with a multitude of environmental factors including hygiene habits, antibiotic use, lifestyle changes and in particular, diet. Changes in nutrition can result in dysbiosis of the skin, gut and lung microbiota and generate changes in microbial metabolites produced, which may in turn produce epigenetic modifications. Current evidence supports the view that epigenetic mechanisms are involved in immune regulation and may represent a key-missing piece of the etiological puzzle for FA, at the interface between the environment and the genome. Dietary fibre can change the gut microbiota composition and therefore cause epigenome changes promoting health. Pectin is one type of dietary fibre that can exert immune regulation and mouse studies have shown its potential in preventing and even curing respiratory allergies. DIFAMEM aims to investigate the effects of FA treatment through intervention with a prebiotic dietary component, pectin, and using peach allergy as a model.

This project will advance our understanding on how the interaction between dietary components and gut microbiota composition leads to epigenetic changes that provoke the immune modulation, and establish new strategies for dietary intervention in FA, with potential applications for other immune-related diseases.