Severe winter lower respiratory infections in early life are known to be major risk factors for subsequent development of asthma, and it is also known that the high susceptibility to these infections in infants is due to the functional immaturity of their immune systems. The therapeutic agent OM85 has been used in other settings in at-risk children in Europe to protect against the inflammatory effects of winter infections, and we are seeking both confirmatory and mechanism-of-action data on the use of this agent in Australian infants, which we hope will provide the basis for future clinical trials with OM85 that target asthma prevention.
This research has been funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.