ReviewFrontiers in allergy2023
The old friends hypothesis: evolution, immunoregulation and essential microbial inputs.
Review in Frontiers in allergy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Indoor Microbiome: Sampling, Analysis and Emerging Trends.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Pooled it
- A naturalized gut microbiome interacts with dietary fibers to protect against colonic inflammation.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Bacterial lipid structural diversity mediates commensalism and pathogenesis.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- The role of the respiratory microbiome in acute and chronic respiratory diseases.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Life-course hygiene exposures and disorders of gut-brain interaction: a multinational cross-sectional study.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- A novel soil-derived Mycolicibacterium decreases anxiety-like defensive behavioral responses in association with decreases in biomarkers of neuroinflammation and hippocampal microglial priming in adult male rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Microbial Legacy: Mycobacterium vaccae ATCC 15483Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Parasites and allergies: a complex bidirectional relationship from evolutionary origins to modern therapeutics.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- Anti-Toxocara canis seroreactivity across autoimmune rheumatic diseases with exploratory IgG4 and eosinophil-associated signals in systemic lupus erythematosus: a cross-sectional case-control study.Rheumatology international · 2026Article
- Species Extinction, Biodiversity, Human Health, and Inevitable Role of Lifestyle Medicine: A Narrative Review.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2026Review
- Infectious Agents in Multiple Sclerosis: Viral Triggers, Antibody-Mediated Autoimmunity, and Parasitic Immunomodulation.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lifestyle changes on early-life microbiome development.Genome medicine · 2026Article
- Early life bacteria and sibling exposure associate with restoration of the infant gut microbiome after cesarean section.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Unveiling the viral dimension: The paediatric gut virome as a key modulator of gastrointestinal metabolic, and neurodevelopmental health.World journal of virology · 2026Review
- Review
- The dual role of intestinal parasites in shaping human gut microbiota: distinguishing helminthic and protozoan dynamics.Gut pathogens · 2026Review
- Exposures in Indoor Air Affecting Health.Allergy · 2026Review
- The Gut Microbiota-Mast Cell Axis in Intestinal Homeostasis and Food Allergy Pathogenesis.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- The Shuar Health and Life History Project: Overview at 20 Years and Introduction to the Special Issue.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2026Article
- Pathogens as commensals: microbial priming of the immune system and heterologous protection.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In wealthy urbanised societies there have been striking increases in chronic inflammatory disorders such as allergies, autoimmunity and inflammatory bowel diseases. There has also been an increase in the prevalence of individuals with systemically raised levels of inflammatory biomarkers correlating with increased risk of metabolic, cardiovascular and psychiatric problems. These changing disease patterns indicate a broad failure of the mechanisms that should stop the immune system from attacking harmless allergens, components of self or gut contents, and that should terminate inappropriate inflammation. The Old Friends Hypothesis postulates that this broad failure of immunoregulation is due to inadequate exposures to the microorganisms that drive development of the immune system, and drive the expansion of components such as regulatory T cells (Treg) that mediate immunoregulatory mechanisms. An evolutionary approach helps us to identify the organisms on which we are in a state of evolved dependence for this function (Old Friends). The bottom line is that most of the organisms that drive the regulatory arm of the immune system come from our mothers and family and from the natural environment (including animals) and many of these organisms are symbiotic components of a healthy microbiota. Lifestyle changes that are interrupting our exposure to these organisms can now be identified, and many are closely associated with low socioeconomic status (SES) in wealthy countries. These insights will facilitate the development of education, diets and urban planning that can correct the immunoregulatory deficit, while simultaneously reducing other contributory factors such as epithelial damage.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.