Dietary regulation of immune quorum sensing in IgE-mediated food allergy: from fetal life to adolescence

This review discusses how dietary factors regulate immune quorum sensing (IQS) and shape tolerance development in IgE-mediated food allergy from fetal life through adolescence. We integrate evidence drawn from human cohort studies, mechanistic animal models, and dietary intervention trials to establish the conceptual link between bacterial quorum sensing and IQS, thereby providing a theoretical framework for immune density sensing in allergic regulation. Maternal diet and nutrient intake during pregnancy and lactation influence neonatal IQS by modulating the maternal gut microbiota, transferring immunoregulatory metabolites, and inducing epigenetic programming of offspring immunity. In postnatal and adolescent stages, dietary patterns, particularly the high consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), further affect IQS by disrupting microbial composition, reducing metabolite production, and compromising epithelial integrity, collectively lowering oral tolerance thresholds. Across experimental and clinical systems, UPFs consistently emerge drive microbial dysbiosis characterized by reduced diversity, expansion of pro-inflammatory taxa, and impaired synthesis of regulatory metabolites. Taken together, this review proposes a nutrition-centered framework linking dietary regulation, gut homeostasis, and IQS in the pathogenesis of FA. Understanding these interactions across developmental stages underscore nutritional strategies as promising approaches to enhance immune tolerance and reduce allergic risk.