Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

PROFESSOR MIRIAM F. MOFFATT

Faculty of Medicine, National Heart & Lung Institute

Consul for the Faculty of Medicine, Professor
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 2942m.moffatt

 
 
//

Location

 

400Guy Scadding BuildingRoyal Brompton Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@unpublished{Turek:2019:10.1101/583559,
author = {Turek, EM and Cox, MJ and Hunter, M and Hui, J and James, P and Willis-Owen, SAG and Cuthbertson, L and James, A and Musk, AW and Moffatt, MF and Cookson, WOCM},
doi = {10.1101/583559},
title = {Smoking, asthma and airway microbial disruption},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/583559},
year = {2019}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - UNPB
AB  - <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Normal airway microbial communities play a central role in respiratory health but are poorly characterized. Cigarette smoking is the dominant global environmental influence on lung function, and asthma has become the most prevalent chronic respiratory disease worldwide. Both conditions have major microbial components that are also poorly defined.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>We investigated airway bacterial communities in a general population sample of 529 Australian adults. Posterior oropharyngeal swabs were analysed by sequencing of the 16S rRNA and methionine aminopeptidase genes. The microbiota were characterised according to their prevalence, abundance, and network memberships.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Findings</jats:title><jats:p>Microbial communities were similar across the population and were strongly organized into co-abundance networks. Smoking associated with diversity loss, negative effects on abundant taxa, profound alterations to network structure and expansion of <jats:italic>Streptococcus</jats:italic> spp. By contrast, the asthmatic microbiota were selectively affected by an increase in <jats:italic>Neisseria</jats:italic> spp. and by reduced numbers of low abundance but prevalent organisms.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Interpretation</jats:title><jats:p>Our study shows healthy airway microbiota are contained within a highly structured ecosystem, indicating balanced relationships between the microbiome and human host factors. The marked abnormalities in smokers may be pathogenic for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer. The narrow spectrum of abnormalities in asthmatics encourages investigation of damaging and
AU  - Turek,EM
AU  - Cox,MJ
AU  - Hunter,M
AU  - Hui,J
AU  - James,P
AU  - Willis-Owen,SAG
AU  - Cuthbertson,L
AU  - James,A
AU  - Musk,AW
AU  - Moffatt,MF
AU  - Cookson,WOCM
DO  - 10.1101/583559
PY  - 2019///
TI  - Smoking, asthma and airway microbial disruption
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/583559
ER  -
Download