Contribution of repeated infections in asthma persistence from preschool to school age: Design and characteristics of the PreDicta cohort

Abstract

The PreDicta cohort presented no differences in non-asthma related measures; however, it is well balanced regarding key phenotypic characteristics representative of "preschool asthma".

Bacteriophage deficiency characterizes respiratory virome dysbiosis in childhood asthma

“…We processed nasopharyngeal samples (NPS) obtained from a subgroup of children with asthma and healthy controls recruited in the PreDicta cohort 27 Figure 1A). We observed that 87.5% (7 out of 8) of these vMAGs were identified in healthy samples compared to 37.5% (3 out of 8) in asthma ( Figure 1A), along with an elevated number of sequencing reads mapping to them ( Figure 1B).…”

“…This is also the case for different asthma phenotypes and severity levels. Nevertheless, the PreDicta cohort was shown to be representative of preschool asthma 27 . Finally, the identified viromes and bacteriomes refer to the specific tissue niche of the nasopharynx and further investigation is needed to study viral presence along the respiratory tract.…”

“…Donors were recruited as part of the Predicta cohort 103 . The PreDicta paediatric cohort was a two-year prospective multicentre study (five European regions) under the EU FP7 program.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that bacterial communities are disrupted in disease or infectious conditions [11][12][13][14][15] , while the bacterial component of the respiratory microbiome is increasingly recognised to have an important role in the susceptibility and severity of acute respiratory illness and asthma 16,17 . The microbial colonisation of the nasal cavity and nasopharynx in early life has been linked with wheeze episodes and progression to asthma, potentially mediated through resistance or susceptibility to acute respiratory infections during childhood 18-22 . Compared to cellular microbes, respiratory viruses are currently considered the most important drivers of asthma development, exacerbation and persistence [23][24][25][26][27] . Upper respiratory viruses, most importantly rhinoviruses (RV), are strongly implicated in the induction of airway hyperresponsiveness and airway remodelling 1,4, [28][29][30][31] .…”

Editorial comments on this issue of the Journal

“…Readers with a special interest in asthma will also read with interest articles on the role of pathogens either for the contribution of exacerbations, prevention by active innate immune stimulation with bacterial compounds and a meta‐analysis of early fish consumption and the diagnosis of asthma later in life …”