1
|
Edris A, Voorhies K, Lutz SM, Iribarren C, Hall I, Wu AC, Tobin M, Fawcett K, Lahousse L. Asthma exacerbations and eosinophilia in the UK Biobank: a genome-wide association study. ERJ Open Res 2024; 10:00566-2023. [PMID: 38196893 PMCID: PMC10772900 DOI: 10.1183/23120541.00566-2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 10/31/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Asthma exacerbations reflect disease severity, affect morbidity and mortality, and may lead to declining lung function. Inflammatory endotypes (e.g. T2-high (eosinophilic)) may play a key role in asthma exacerbations. We aimed to assess whether genetic susceptibility underlies asthma exacerbation risk and additionally tested for an interaction between genetic variants and eosinophilia on exacerbation risk. Methods UK Biobank data were used to perform a genome-wide association study of individuals with asthma and at least one exacerbation compared to individuals with asthma and no history of exacerbations. Individuals with asthma were identified using self-reported data, hospitalisation data and general practitioner records. Exacerbations were identified as either asthma-related hospitalisation, general practitioner record of asthma exacerbation or an oral corticosteroid burst prescription. A logistic regression model adjusted for age, sex, smoking status and genetic ancestry via principal components was used to assess the association between genetic variants and asthma exacerbations. We sought replication for suggestive associations (p<5×10-6) in the GERA cohort. Results In the UK Biobank, we identified 11 604 cases and 37 890 controls. While no variants reached genome-wide significance (p<5×10-8) in the primary analysis, 116 signals were suggestively significant (p<5×10-6). In GERA, two single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs34643691 and rs149721630) replicated (p<0.05), representing signals near the NTRK3 and ABCA13 genes. Conclusions Our study has identified reproducible associations with asthma exacerbations in the UK Biobank and GERA cohorts. Confirmation of these findings in different asthma subphenotypes in diverse ancestries and functional investigation will be required to understand their mechanisms of action and potentially inform therapeutic development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ahmed Edris
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Genetic Epidemiology Group, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
| | - Kirsten Voorhies
- Precision Medicine Translational Research Center, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sharon M. Lutz
- Precision Medicine Translational Research Center, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Carlos Iribarren
- Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, CA, USA
| | - Ian Hall
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
| | - Ann Chen Wu
- Precision Medicine Translational Research Center, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Martin Tobin
- Genetic Epidemiology Group, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
| | - Katherine Fawcett
- Genetic Epidemiology Group, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Lies Lahousse
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- These authors contributed equally
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Zhou Y, Duan Q, Yang D. In vitro human cell-based models to study airway remodeling in asthma. Biomed Pharmacother 2023; 159:114218. [PMID: 36638596 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2023.114218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Revised: 12/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Airway remodeling, as a predominant characteristic of asthma, refers to the structural changes that occurred both in the large and small airways. These pathological changes not only contribute to airway hyperresponsiveness and airway obstruction, but also predict poor outcomes of patients. In vitro models are the alternatives to animal models that facilitate airway remodeling research. Current approaches to mimic airway remodeling in vitro include mono cultures of cell lines and primary cells that are derived from the respiratory tract, and co-culture systems that consist of different cell subpopulations. Moreover, recent advances in microfluid chips and organoids show promise in simulating the complex architecture and functionality of native organs. According, they enable highly physiological-relevant investigations of human diseases in vitro. Here we aim to detail the current human cell-based models regarding their key pros and cons, and to discuss how they may be used to facilitate our understanding of airway remodeling in asthma.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ying Zhou
- Department of Anesthesiology, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100144, China
| | - Qirui Duan
- Department of Anesthesiology, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100144, China
| | - Dong Yang
- Department of Anesthesiology, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100144, China.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Microarray-Based Analyses of Rhinovirus Species-Specific Antibody Responses in Exacerbated Pediatric Asthma in a German Pediatric Cohort. Viruses 2022; 14:v14091857. [PMID: 36146664 PMCID: PMC9502376 DOI: 10.3390/v14091857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2022] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Rhinoviruses (RV) account for a significant number of asthma exacerbations, and RV species C may be associated with a severe course in vulnerable patient groups. Despite important evidence on the role of RV reported by clinicians and life scientists, there are still unanswered questions regarding their influence on asthma exacerbation in young patients. Thus, we measured the RVspecies-specific IgG titers in our German pediatric exacerbation cohort using a microarray-based technology. For this approach, human sera of patients with exacerbated asthma and wheeze, as well as healthy control subjects (n = 136) were included, and correlation analyses were performed. Concordantly with previously published results, we observed significantly higher cumulative levels of RV species A-specific IgG (p = 0.011) and RV-C-specific IgG (p = 0.051) in exacerbated asthma group compared to age-matched controls. Moreover, atopic wheezers had increased RV-specific IgG levels for species A (p = 0.0011) and species C (p = 0.0009) compared to non-atopic wheezers. Hypothesizing that bacterial infection positively correlates with immune memory against RV, we included nasopharyngeal swab results in our analyses and detected limited correlations. Interestingly, the eosinophil blood titer positively correlated with RV-specific IgG levels. With these observations, we add important observations to the existing data regarding exacerbation in pediatric and adolescent medicine. We propose that scientists and clinicians should pay more attention to the relevance of RV species in susceptible pediatric patients.
Collapse
|
4
|
The Communication between Ocular Surface and Nasal Epithelia in 3D Cell Culture Technology for Translational Research: A Narrative Review. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms222312994. [PMID: 34884799 PMCID: PMC8657734 DOI: 10.3390/ijms222312994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Revised: 11/25/2021] [Accepted: 11/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
There is a lack of knowledge regarding the connection between the ocular and nasal epithelia. This narrative review focuses on conjunctival, corneal, ultrastructural corneal stroma, and nasal epithelia as well as an introduction into their interconnections. We describe in detail the morphology and physiology of the ocular surface, the nasolacrimal ducts, and the nasal cavity. This knowledge provides a basis for functional studies and the development of relevant cell culture models that can be used to investigate the pathogenesis of diseases related to these complex structures. Moreover, we also provide a state-of-the-art overview regarding the development of 3D culture models, which allow for addressing research questions in models resembling the in vivo situation. In particular, we give an overview of the current developments of corneal 3D and organoid models, as well as 3D cell culture models of epithelia with goblet cells (conjunctiva and nasal cavity). The benefits and shortcomings of these cell culture models are discussed. As examples for pathogens related to ocular and nasal epithelia, we discuss infections caused by adenovirus and measles virus. In addition to pathogens, also external triggers such as allergens can cause rhinoconjunctivitis. These diseases exemplify the interconnections between the ocular surface and nasal epithelia in a molecular and clinical context. With a final translational section on optical coherence tomography (OCT), we provide an overview about the applicability of this technique in basic research and clinical ophthalmology. The techniques presented herein will be instrumental in further elucidating the functional interrelations and crosstalk between ocular and nasal epithelia.
Collapse
|
5
|
Aydin M, Schellhorn S, Wirth S, Zhang W, Ehrhardt A. Human Species D Adenoviruses Isolated from Diarrheal Feces Show Low Infection Rates in Primary Nasal Epithelial Cells. CHILDREN (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2021; 8:563. [PMID: 34208817 PMCID: PMC8307086 DOI: 10.3390/children8070563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Revised: 06/27/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
The importance of adenovirus (Ad) research is significantly increasing with respect to virotherapy for vaccine development, tumor, and gene therapy. Due to the different species and subtypes of this virus, the characterization of the biological significance of especially rare Ad is necessary. Previously, rare Ad types 70, 73, and 74 were originally isolated from fecal samples of immunocompromised patients and they represent recombinants of other Ad types. Here we investigated transduction experiments of these reporter gene tagged Ad types in primary cells exemplified by subject-derived primary nasal epithelial cells (NAEPCs). To analyze the transduction rates, we performed flow cytometry, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and cytokine analyses 25 h post-infection. We found that, in contrast to Ad type 5 (as a positive control), the transduction rates of NAEPCs with Ad types 70, 73, and 74 were interestingly low. The major Ad receptor (coxsackievirus-adenovirus receptor and CD46) expression levels showed no significant change after infection with Ad types 70, 73 and 74. Moreover, Interleukin 6 (IL-6) was not released after in vitro Ad transduction. Due to the high risk of developing life-threatening complications in immunocompromised patients by these human species D Ads, even more attention needs to be investigated into the development of diagnostic and therapeutic concepts to prevent and treat those opportunistic infections in susceptible patients.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Malik Aydin
- Laboratory of Experimental Pediatric Pneumology and Allergology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research, School of Life Sciences (ZBAF), Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, 58455 Witten, Germany
- Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, 42283 Wuppertal, Germany;
| | - Sebastian Schellhorn
- Virology and Microbiology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research (ZBAF), Department of Human Medicine, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, 58455 Witten, Germany; (S.S.); (W.Z.); (A.E.)
| | - Stefan Wirth
- Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, 42283 Wuppertal, Germany;
| | - Wenli Zhang
- Virology and Microbiology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research (ZBAF), Department of Human Medicine, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, 58455 Witten, Germany; (S.S.); (W.Z.); (A.E.)
| | - Anja Ehrhardt
- Virology and Microbiology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research (ZBAF), Department of Human Medicine, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, 58455 Witten, Germany; (S.S.); (W.Z.); (A.E.)
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Aydin M, Weisser C, Rué O, Mariadassou M, Maaß S, Behrendt AK, Jaszczyszyn Y, Heilker T, Spaeth M, Vogel S, Lutz S, Ahmad-Nejad P, Graf V, Bellm A, Weisser C, Naumova EA, Arnold WH, Ehrhardt A, Meyer-Bahlburg A, Becher D, Postberg J, Ghebremedhin B, Wirth S. The Rhinobiome of Exacerbated Wheezers and Asthmatics: Insights From a German Pediatric Exacerbation Network. FRONTIERS IN ALLERGY 2021; 2:667562. [PMID: 35386977 PMCID: PMC8974812 DOI: 10.3389/falgy.2021.667562] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Although the nose, as a gateway for organism–environment interactions, may have a key role in asthmatic exacerbation, the rhinobiome of exacerbated children with asthma was widely neglected to date. The aim of this study is to understand the microbiome, the microbial immunology, and the proteome of exacerbated children and adolescents with wheeze and asthma. Considering that a certain proportion of wheezers may show a progression to asthma, the comparison of both groups provides important information regarding clinical and phenotype stratification. Thus, deep nasopharyngeal swab specimens, nasal epithelial spheroid (NAEsp) cultures, and blood samples of acute exacerbated wheezers (WH), asthmatics (AB), and healthy controls (HC) were used for culture (n = 146), 16 S-rRNA gene amplicon sequencing (n = 64), and proteomic and cytokine analyses. Interestingly, Proteobacteria were over-represented in WH, whereas Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were associated with AB. In contrast, Actinobacteria commonly colonized HCs. Moreover, Staphylococcaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Burkholderiaceae, Xanthobacteraceae, and Sphingomonadaceae were significantly more abundant in AB compared to WH and HC. The α-diversity analyses demonstrated an increase of bacterial abundance levels in atopic AB and a decrease in WH samples. Microbiome profiles of atopic WH differed significantly from atopic AB, whereby atopic samples of WH were more homogeneous than those of non-atopic subjects. The NAEsp bacterial exposure experiments provided a disrupted epithelial cell integrity, a cytokine release, and cohort-specific proteomic differences especially for Moraxella catarrhalis cultures. This comprehensive dataset contributes to a deeper insight into the poorly understood plasticity of the nasal microbiota, and, in particular, may enforce our understanding in the pathogenesis of asthma exacerbation in childhood.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Malik Aydin
- Laboratory of Experimental Pediatric Pneumology and Allergology, Faculty of Health, Center for Biomedical Education and Research, School of Life Sciences, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany
- Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
- *Correspondence: Malik Aydin
| | - Cornelius Weisser
- Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Olivier Rué
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, MaIAGE, Jouy-en-Josas, France
| | | | - Sandra Maaß
- Center of Functional Genomics of Microbes, Institute of Microbiology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Ann-Kathrin Behrendt
- Pediatric Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Yan Jaszczyszyn
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Tatje Heilker
- Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Maximilian Spaeth
- Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Silvia Vogel
- Department of Pathology, Division of Molecular Pathology, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Center for Clinical and Translational Research, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Sören Lutz
- Children's Hospital, Helios Hospital Niederberg, Teaching Hospital of University Hospital Essen, Velbert, Germany
| | - Parviz Ahmad-Nejad
- Institute for Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, Center for Clinical and Translational Research, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Viktoria Graf
- Institute for Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, Center for Clinical and Translational Research, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Aliyah Bellm
- Helios Hospital Krefeld, Children's Hospital, Teaching Hospital of Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RTWH) University Aachen, Krefeld, Germany
| | - Christoph Weisser
- Department of Economics and Center for Statistics, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Ella A. Naumova
- Department of Biological and Material Sciences in Dentistry, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany
| | - Wolfgang H. Arnold
- Department of Biological and Material Sciences in Dentistry, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany
| | - Anja Ehrhardt
- Department of Human Medicine, Faculty of Health, Institute of Virology and Microbiology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany
| | - Almut Meyer-Bahlburg
- Pediatric Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Dörte Becher
- Center of Functional Genomics of Microbes, Institute of Microbiology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Jan Postberg
- Laboratory of Clinical Molecular Genetics and Epigenetics, Faculty of Health, Center for Biomedical Education and Research, School of Life Sciences, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Beniam Ghebremedhin
- Institute for Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, Center for Clinical and Translational Research, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Stefan Wirth
- Laboratory of Experimental Pediatric Pneumology and Allergology, Faculty of Health, Center for Biomedical Education and Research, School of Life Sciences, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany
| |
Collapse
|