Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2022 Feb 14;22(1):152.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07107-w.

Analysing the protection from respiratory tract infections and allergic diseases early in life by human milk components: the PRIMA birth cohort

Arthur H van Stigt  1 , Katrien Oude Rengerink  2 , Kitty W M Bloemenkamp  3 , Wouter de Waal  4 , Sabine M P J Prevaes  5 , Thuy-My Le  6 , Femke van Wijk  1 , Maaike Nederend  1 , Anneke H Hellinga  1 , Christianne S Lammers  1 , Gerco den Hartog  7 , Martijn J C van Herwijnen  8 , Johan Garssen  9   10 , Léon M J Knippels  9   10 , Lilly M Verhagen  11 , Caroline G M de Theije  12 , Alejandro Lopez-Rincon  9 , Jeanette H W Leusen  1 , Belinda Van't Land  1   10 , Louis Bont  13   14   15 ; PRIMA Initiative Group
Collaborators, Affiliations
Observational Study

Analysing the protection from respiratory tract infections and allergic diseases early in life by human milk components: the PRIMA birth cohort

Arthur H van Stigt et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Many studies support the protective effect of breastfeeding on respiratory tract infections. Although infant formulas have been developed to provide adequate nutritional solutions, many components in human milk contributing to the protection of newborns and aiding immune development still need to be identified. In this paper we present the methodology of the "Protecting against Respiratory tract lnfections through human Milk Analysis" (PRIMA) cohort, which is an observational, prospective and multi-centre birth cohort aiming to identify novel functions of components in human milk that are protective against respiratory tract infections and allergic diseases early in life.

Methods: For the PRIMA human milk cohort we aim to recruit 1000 mother-child pairs in the first month postpartum. At one week, one, three, and six months after birth, fresh human milk samples will be collected and processed. In order to identify protective components, the level of pathogen specific antibodies, T cell composition, Human milk oligosaccharides, as well as extracellular vesicles (EVs) will be analysed, in the milk samples in relation to clinical data which are collected using two-weekly parental questionnaires. The primary outcome of this study is the number of parent-reported medically attended respiratory infections. Secondary outcomes that will be measured are physician diagnosed (respiratory) infections and allergies during the first year of life.

Discussion: The PRIMA human milk cohort will be a large prospective healthy birth cohort in which we will use an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to identify the longitudinal effect human milk components that play a role in preventing (respiratory) infections and allergies during the first year of life. Ultimately, we believe that this study will provide novel insights into immunomodulatory components in human milk. This may allow for optimizing formula feeding for all non-breastfed infants.

Keywords: Allergies; Antibodies; Biobank; Breastfeeding; Extracellular vesicles; Human milk; Human milk oligosaccharides; Immune development; Respiratory tract infections; T cells.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The study was funded by grants from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital and Nutricia B.V. None of the authors have a competing financial interest in relation to the presented work; JG, LK and BL are (partly) employed by Danone Nutricia Research.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Overview of sampling and timing of questionnaire: overview of timing sample collection and questionnaires sent to parents
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kutsaya A, Teros-Jaakkola T, Kakkola L, Toivonen L, Peltola V, Waris M, et al. Prospective clinical and serological follow-up in early childhood reveals a high rate of subclinical RSV infection and a relatively high reinfection rate within the first 3 years of life. Epidemiol Infect. 2016;144(8):1622–1633. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang H, Naghavi M, Allen C, Barber RM, Bhutta ZA, Carter A, et al. Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet. 2016;388(10053):1459–544. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health Study G Causes of severe pneumonia requiring hospital admission in children without HIV infection from Africa and Asia: the PERCH multi-country case-control study. Lancet. 2019;394(10200):757–779. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nair H, Nokes DJ, Gessner BD, Dherani M, Madhi SA, Singleton RJ, et al. Global burden of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in young children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2010;375(9725):1545–1555. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Reeves RM, van Wijhe M, Tong S, Lehtonen T, Stona L, Teirlinck AC, et al. Respiratory syncytial virus-associated hospital admissions in children younger than 5 years in 7 European countries using routinely collected datasets. J Infect Dis. 2020;222(Supplement_7):S599–S605. - PubMed

Publication types