HCR.20.061 – Healthy lungs for life (HALO): Improve respiratory health by preventive strategies during early infancy

One million patients in the Netherlands suffer from chronic lung diseases: asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are most common. These diseases cannot be cured and have a major impact on quality of life. Early life exposures predispose to future lung disease, therefore a good start is extremely important for healthy lungs later. Personalized prevention of lung diseases – early in life – can reduce disease- and economic burden and create healthy lungs for life. Lung development, function, and immunity are negatively affected by pre- and postnatal tobacco smoke exposure, urban lifestyle, and viral respiratory infections. Single interventions have been unsuccessful because lung disease is caused by many factors. A Finnish program – applying combined strategies – shows that we should focus on multi-target approaches in early life to prevent lung diseases later. HALO will expand this program to the next level. The HALO consortium is a unique Dutch effort initiated by the Netherlands Respiratory Society promoting healthy lungs by early postnatal interventions. Newborn babies will receive nutritional supplements and/or interventions targeting childhood respiratory infections. These interventions should affect lung growth, microbiome composition, metabolic profile, immune maturation and protection against respiratory pathogens. By combining innovative omics-technologies (transcriptomics, epigenomics, mass-cytometry, microbiomics, metabolomics, breathomics), we aim to identify biomarkers for personalized prevention strategies. In HALO, collaboration between public and private partners is key to success. Longfonds and Netherlands-Respiratory-Society (NRS) guarantee participation of patients, scientists and health-care takers in study set-up and dissemination of results. Private partners will ensure marketing and accessibility of results to society. By combining national and multidisciplinary forces, HALO has the ambition to develop a National program for personalized prevention and achieve healthy lungs for life.

Keywords

asthma, children, immune maturation, Lungs, Metabolomics, respiratory viruses, wheeze

Other organisations

Netherlands Respiratory Society