Study on the relationship between bacteria and severe asthma from childhood asthma cases

In the United States, asthma affects more than 6 million children under the age of 18, accounting for about 8.3% . Although the upper respiratory flora plays an important role in the pathophysiology of asthma, the relationship between the upper respiratory flora of asthmatic children and loss of asthma control and worsening severity has not yet been elucidated.

Respiratory illness due to changes in the upper respiratory microflora ...

A research team from St. Louis Washington University in the United States published a research paper on the open access magazine Nature Communications on December 16, 2019, showing the relationship between asthma severity in children and microbiota in the upper respiratory tract.

The research team noted that in 214 children aged 5 to 11 with mild to moderate asthma, the `` green zone '' where asthma is well controlled and asthma control has been lost Samples of nasal mucus were collected at two points, the required "yellow zone", and the upper respiratory flora was analyzed.

As a result, in the "green zone", corynebacterium and drosigranulum were found in large numbers, while in the "yellow zone" where there were early signs of asthma recurrence, bacteria such as staphylococci, streptococci and molaxella were found.

It has also been shown that the conversion of bacteria that control the upper respiratory flora from Corynebacterium and Drosigranulum to Moraxella increases the risk of exacerbating asthma symptoms. This suggests that changes in the upper respiratory tract microbiota of a child may cause respiratory illness to change from a healthy state, suggesting that changes in the microbiome pattern may play an important role in aggravating asthma. are doing.

Paving the way for new asthma treatments

Associate Professor Abraham Beigleman, author of the research paper, said that the series of research findings `` do not prove a causal relationship between the severity of asthma in children and the microbiota of the upper respiratory tract, '' It will open the way to a new treatment for asthma by changing the type of bacteria that inhabits it. "

The research team plans to elucidate the causal relationship between bacteria and the severity of asthma in mice using artificially controlled upper respiratory flora.