Dietary regulation of the SIgA-gut microbiota interaction

Abstract

Gut microbiota (GM) is essential for host health, and changes in the GM are related to the development of various diseases. Recently, secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA), the most abundant immunoglobulin isotype in the intestinal mucosa, has been found to play an essential role in controlling GM. SIgA dysfunction can lead to changes in the GM and is associated with the development of various GM-related diseases. Although in early stage, recent studies have shown that assorted dietary interventions, including vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, polyphenols, oligo/polysaccharides, and probiotics, can influence the intestinal SIgA response and SIgA-GM interaction. Dietary intervention can enhance the SIgA response by directly regulating it (from top to bottom) or by regulating the GM structure or gene expression (from bottom to top). Furthermore, intensive studies involving the particular influence of dietary intervention on SIgA-binding to the GM and SIgA repertoire and the precise regulation of the SIgA response via dietary intervention are still exceedingly scarce and merit further consideration. This review summarizes the existing knowledge and (possible) mechanisms of the influence of dietary intervention on the SIgA-GM interaction. Key issues are considered, and the approaches in addressing these issues in future studies are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Dietary intervention
• gut microbiota
• perspectives
• SIgA

Authors’ contributions

JG and XH prepared the first draft, XH revisied the draft based on the reviewer comments, YY, WH, and JZ edited and approved the final manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFD0400500).