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The crosstalk between microbiome and asthma: Exploring associations and challenges
Author(s) -
AbdelAziz Mahmoud I.,
Vijverberg Susanne J. H.,
Neerincx Anne H.,
Kraneveld Aletta D.,
Maitlandvan der Zee Anke H.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
clinical and experimental allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.462
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1365-2222
pISSN - 0954-7894
DOI - 10.1111/cea.13444
Subject(s) - microbiome , asthma , crosstalk , disease , gut microbiome , human microbiome , metagenomics , intestinal microbiome , medicine , computational biology , biology , immunology , bioinformatics , intensive care medicine , genetics , pathology , physics , gene , optics
With the advancement of high‐throughput DNA/RNA sequencing and computational analysis techniques, commensal bacteria are now considered almost as important as pathological ones. Understanding the interaction between these bacterial microbiota, host and asthma is crucial to reveal their role in asthma pathophysiology. Several airway and/or gut microbiome studies have shown associations between certain bacterial taxa and asthma. However, challenges remain before gained knowledge from these studies can be implemented into clinical practice, such as inconsistency between studies in choosing sampling compartments and/or sequencing approaches, variability of results in asthma studies, and not taking into account medication intake and diet composition especially when investigating gut microbiome. Overcoming those challenges will help to better understand the complex asthma disease process. The therapeutic potential of using pro‐ and prebiotics to prevent or reduce risk of asthma exacerbations requires further investigation. This review will focus on methodological issues regarding setting up a microbiome study, recent developments in asthma bacterial microbiome studies, challenges and future therapeutic potential.