Food, microorganisms, and the immune system
The intestine serves as a crucial interface where food, microorganisms, and the immune system interact and influence human health. Immunologists are beginning to understand how our immune system recognizes food components and commensals as "non-self" while still maintaining homeostasis and tolerance. Additionally, we are uncovering how specific nutrients (e.g., fiber, amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins) and their microbial derivatives (e.g., secondary bile acids, short-chain fatty acids, tyramine) shape and affect the intestinal immune system. However, due to limitations in knowledge and technical constraints, a comprehensive understanding of this dynamic triad remains elusive.
肠道作为食物、微生物和免疫系统相互作用并影响人类健康的重要界面，正受到免疫学家的关注。他们开始理解我们的免疫系统如何将食物成分和共生菌识别为“非自我”，同时保持稳态和耐受性。此外，我们正在揭示特定营养素（如纤维、氨基酸、脂肪酸、维生素）及其微生物衍生物（如二级胆酸、短链脂肪酸、酪胺）如何塑造和影响肠道免疫系统。然而，由于知识和技术的局限，对这一动态三者关系的全面理解仍然难以实现。
A multidisciplinary approach integrating nutrition, microbiology, immunology, gastrointestinal physiology, and computer science is required to understand three key aspects of the field. First, advancements in techniques—including spatial metabolomics and metabolic flux, microbial engineering, in vivo functional screening, and machine learning—could begin to unravel the intricacies of innate sensing and microbial recognition. Ultimately, this would help construct a chemically based network linking nutrients, microbes, and the immune system. Second, high-throughput screening systems are needed to decipher antigen specificity of adaptive immune cells. Applying large language models to comprehensive databases of T or B cell receptors and their cognate antigens could enable epitope prediction or identify the type of corresponding receptor based on antigen sequence characteristics. Finally, insights from the above aspects could lead to more tailored approaches in immunotherapy and immune modulation, including dietary adjustments and administration of commensal microorganisms or metabolites. By leveraging individual immune profiles and understanding diet-microbe-immune interactions, precision immunotherapy would be better suited to improve health outcomes and optimize disease treatment efficacy.
理解该领域的三个关键方面需要一种多学科的方法，整合营养学、微生物学、免疫学、胃肠生理学和计算机科学。首先，技术的进步，包括空间代谢组学、代谢通量、微生物工程、体内功能筛选和机器学习，有望揭示先天感知和微生物识别的复杂性。这将有助于构建一个基于化学的网络，连接营养素、微生物和免疫系统。其次，需要高通量筛选系统来解读适应性免疫细胞的抗原特异性。将大型语言模型应用于T细胞或B细胞受体及其对应抗原的综合数据库，能够实现表位预测或根据抗原序列特征识别相应受体的类型。最后，以上方面的见解可能导致更具针对性的免疫治疗和免疫调节方法，包括饮食调整和共生微生物或代谢物的施用。通过利用个体免疫谱和理解饮食-微生物-免疫的相互作用，精准免疫治疗将更适合改善健康结果和优化疾病治疗效果。
