The Lung Microbiome during Health and Disease

Abstract

Healthy human lungs have traditionally been considered to be a sterile organ. However, culture-independent molecular techniques have reported that large numbers of microbes coexist in the lung and airways. The lungs harbor diverse microbial composition that are undetected by previous approaches. Many studies have found significant differences in microbial composition between during health and respiratory disease. The lung microbiome is likely to not only influence susceptibility or causes of diseases but be affected by disease activities or responses to treatment. Although lung microbiome research has some limitations from study design to reporting, it can add further dimensionality to host-microbe interactions. Moreover, there is a possibility that extending understanding to the lung microbiome with new multiple omics approaches would be useful for developing both diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for respiratory diseases in clinical settings.

Dietary proanthocyanidins promote localized antioxidant responses in porcine pulmonary and gastrointestinal tissues during Ascaris suum ‐induced type 2 inflammation

“…Given that A . suum also transiently colonizes the lungs, it would also be of interest in further studies to elucidate infection‐induced changes in bacterial taxa in the lung, given that the composition of the lung microbiome is increasingly recognized as playing an important role in both respiratory and perhaps also extrapulmonary health 73 …”

Lung Microbiome in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and Other Interstitial Lung Diseases

“…Culture-independent techniques changed the landscape of the lung microbiome scenario. Molecular-based techniques, such as 16S ribosomal (r) RNA and metagenomic sequencing, showed that lungs contain a large number of communities of microbes, even without clinical evidence of infection [15][16][17]. The rapid development of this field required clinical researchers to adopt a new language to describe lung microbial communities and their impact on lung health.…”

The pathophysiological mechanisms of COVID-19 and host immunity, with emphasis on the dysbiosis of the lung and gut microbiomes and pregnancy

“…Besides, butyrate-producing organisms from the Clostridium cluster XIVa and a reduction in anti-inflammatory organisms such as F. prausnitzii and Akkermansia muciniphila have also been reported [ 35 ]. Lung dysbiosis in patients with chronic respiratory diseases compared to the general population has been observed and reported [ [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] ]. Current evidence has highlighted that gut dysbiosis has an inflammatory effect on the joints, liver, or brain, influencing disease progression through the gut-joint axis [ 40 ], gut-liver axis [ 41 ], and gut-brain axis [ 42 ], respectively.…”