Abstract

The airway epithelium is the primary site where inhaled and resident microbiota interacts between themselves and the host, potentially playing an important role on allergic asthma development and pathophysiology. With the advent of culture independent molecular techniques and high throughput technologies, the complex composition and diversity of bacterial communities of the airways has been well-documented and the notion of the lungs' sterility definitively rejected. Recent studies indicate that the microbial composition of the asthmatic airways across the spectrum of disease severity, differ significantly compared with healthy individuals. In parallel, a growing body of evidence suggests that bacterial viruses (bacteriophages or simply phages), regulating bacterial populations, are present in almost every niche of the human body and can also interact directly with the eukaryotic cells. The triptych of airway epithelial cells, bacterial symbionts and resident phages should be considered as a functional and interdependent unit with direct implications on the respiratory and overall homeostasis. While the role of epithelial cells in asthma pathophysiology is well-established, the tripartite interactions between epithelial cells, bacteria and phages should be scrutinized, both to better understand asthma as a system disorder and to explore potential interventions.

Highlights

  • Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease presenting with wheeze, chest tightness and shortness of breath; these symptoms may vary in appearance, frequency and intensity [1]

  • Prevalence of specific bacterial species in the respiratory tract of asthmatics compared to healthy controls seems to reduce the microbial diversity and affect in a decisive yet underexplored way the pathophysiology in asthma

  • It was proposed that early colonization of nasopharynxes with Moraxella, Staphylococcus, Haemophilus, and/or Streptococcus can provoke upper respiratory tract infections and inflammation that possibly spread to the lower airways, predisposing for future asthma onset in childhood [74, 75]

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Summary

Introduction

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease presenting with wheeze, chest tightness and shortness of breath; these symptoms may vary in appearance, frequency and intensity [1]. Its demonstrative that in-vitro infection of airway epithelial cells, obtained from children with or without asthma, with human rhinovirus, provokes different expression of TJs proteins.

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