Keystone Meeting on Malnutrition and Immunity Starts in New Delhi

A healthy gut and good nutrition are important for a healthy immune system and a good immune response to vaccination, so it is not surprising that vaccines have been found to be less efficient in malnourished children. Still, “surprisingly little” is known about the impact nutrition has on the mucosal immune system of the digestive tract, according to the organizers of the Keystone Symposium on Malnutrition, Gut-Microbial Interactions and Mucosal Immunity to Vaccines, which is taking place in New Delhi Nov. 7-11. The meeting focuses on the role nutrition plays in gut immunity, knowledge of which could lead to the development of better vaccines for malnourished children.   

Considering that India is well known for its spices, it only makes sense that the first research project I learned about today had do with a spiced beverage. On the bus to the meeting's first session, Arashdeep Singh from Thapar University in India told me that he and his colleagues have been developing a powder with spices (ginger, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, black pepper, and black salt) that can be used to prepare a spiced beverage for children.   

The powder also contains dried probiotic bacteria like those found in yogurt and are believed to improve the gut environment by outgrowing other harmful gut pathogens that often infect children in tropical countries, who then have to be treated with antibiotics. Drinking a probiotic bacteria-laced spiced beverage on a regular basis might prevent these infections and diarrhea.

But finding probiotic bacteria that can survive in a mix of spices is easier said than done. While such bacteria have been added to single spices, this is the first time that the bacteria are shown to survive in a mix of spices, Singh said. He and his colleagues have also shown that the probiotic bacteria can still outgrow harmful bacteria such as Salmonella in the presence of spices in vitro.

A probiotic bacteria-laced spice drink doesn’t require refrigeration and would likely have a wider appeal in a country like India than dairy products like yogurt. “We are doing [this] because spices are very much being consumed by Indians,” said Singh, who will present the research in a poster on Thursday. To achieve an even wider appeal, Singh wants to use bacterial strains that can survive cooking.

In the first session of the Keystone symposium tonight, held as a joint session with another meeting in New Delhi of awardees of the Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the foundation announced US$35 million in funding of two new GCGH grant programs that will address the causes for the 150,000 maternal deaths, 1.6 million neonatal deaths, and 1.2 million stillbirths that occur each year between the beginning of a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday. $15 million will support research into the causes of growth faltering during this period and to identify interventions to promote healthy growth, and $20 million will go to the discovery and development of interventions to prevent pre-term birth and stillbirth by limiting infection and improving nutrition.

The foundation also announced $9 million to support research to find biomarkers as a non-invasive way to assess gut function and health, and 110 grants of $100,000 each to support innovative proposals to improve nutrition and development in young children and address infectious diseases such as polio and HIV.