Nutrition Project Announced
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EmailThe Legume Innovation Lab is pleased to announce that the project "Legumes and Growth" has been selected to fulfill its third strategic objective, Enhancing Nutrition.
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in developing, impoverished settings. Because millions of children die annually due to undernutrition and hundreds of millions more are stunted, interventions that decrease the burden of childhood malnutrition are urgently needed.
Environmental Enteropathy, a pervasive, chronic, subclinical gut inflammatory condition that usually develops within the first three years of life—when complementary foods are introduced—places children at high risk for stunting, malabsorption, and poor oral vaccine efficacy. Environmental Enteropathy is characterized by T-cell infiltrations of the intestinal mucosa leading to a chronic inflammatory state with increased intestinal permeability, translocation of gut microbes, micro- and macronutrient malabsorption, poor weight gain, stunted physical and cognitive development, frequent enteric infections, and decreased response to enteric vaccines. Basically, Environmental Enteropathy increases the burden of childhood malnutrition.
Researchers plan to conduct two randomized, controlled clinical trials to determine if common beans or cowpeas improve growth, ameliorate EE, and alter the intestinal microbiome during this high-risk period.
The first study involves 6–11-month-old children who will receive common beans, cowpeas, or standard local complementary foods for six months. Anthropometry will be compared among the three groups. EE will be assessed using a urine dual-sugar absorption test and by quantifying human intestinal mRNA for inflammatory messages and the intestinal microbiota characterized by deep sequencing of fecal DNA to enumerate the host microbial populations and their metabolic capacity.
The second randomized, controlled trial will enroll 12–35-month-old children and follow them for twelve months; each subject will receive dietary interventions, either legume-based or control. Anthropometric, host inflammatory, and gut microbiota analyses will be conducted similar to the first study.
By amalgamating the power of the clinical trial and advanced biological analyses, researchers plan to elucidate the potential of legumes to have a major impact on child health in sub-Saharan Africa.
