What is it about?
What causes some forms of severe asthma is not well understood, but involves T cells (white blood cells) and the epithelium (lining of the lungs' airways). We used flexible bronchoscopes in human volunteers to take samples from the lungs and then analysed the T cells and epithelial cells fro their expression of 33000 genes simultaneously. Our results suggest that bacteria may be playing an important role in some patients with the most severe forms of 'neutrophilic' asthma.
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Why is it important?
If bacteria are indeed contributing to the inflammation of the airways in asthma then this means some astham sufferers might benefit from long-term use of antibiotics. This is something which should be tested in detailed mechanistic studies and in pragmatic clinical trials.
Perspectives
Given the recent publication of the AMAZES trial in which Gibson et al showed benefit from use of the antibiotic azithromycin in severe asthma, this study is timely and lends support to the idea that bacterial infection o fhte airways could be an important new 'treatable trait' in asthma.
Timothy SC Hinks
University of Oxford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Multitissue Transcriptomics Delineates the Diversity of Airway T Cell Functions in Asthma, American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, February 2018, American Thoracic Society,
DOI: 10.1165/rcmb.2017-0162oc.
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