Bacteria and asthma: more there than we thought

Abstract

Evaluation of: Huang YJ, Nelson CE, Brodie EL et al. Airway microbiota and bronchial hyperresponsiveness in patients with suboptimally controlled asthma. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 127(2), 372–381, e371–e373 (2011).

In a recently performed case–control study, characteristics of the airway microbiota in suboptimally controlled adult asthmatics were compared with those of healthy, nonasthmatic adult subjects. Bacterial burden was significantly greater in asthmatic subjects. Further, increased airway microbiota variability and diversity were correlated with increased bronchial hyper-responsiveness. Although several limitations are present, this study provides an intriguing initial insight into the possible relationship between the airway microbiota and asthma pathogenesis.

Keywords::

• asthma
• bacterial infection
• bronchial hyper-responsiveness
• macrolides
• microarray
• microbiota

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by the NIH (grant numbers: R01 HL 090664, R01 AI 070672, R01 AI059108, GM015431, R21 HL106446 and UL1 RR024975) and the Department of Veteran Affairs (grant number 1I01BX000624). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.