Project description:<p>The goal of the RSV Bronchiolitis in Early Life (RBEL) study is to determine how specific genetic, biologic, and immunologic characteristics interact to predispose individuals to develop asthma. Participants were carefully recruited by selecting a prospective cohort of 206 infants with severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis who were at substantial risk of developing asthma.</p>
Project description:Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease characterized by airway inflammation and remodeling. The role of 15-oxo-5Z,8Z,11Z,13E-eicosatetraenoic acid (15-oxoETE), a 15-HETE metabolite catalyzed by 15-prostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), has been relatively unexplored in asthma. In this study, we used RNA-seq to explore the effect of 15-KETE on the transcriptome of airway epithelial cells, aiming to identify its potential downstream targets and mechanisms of action.
Project description:Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a prevalent pathogen globally, can cause severe disease in older adults, and remains the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in the United States for children during their first year of life. Despite its prevalence worldwide, RSV specific pharmacologic interventions remain unavailable for most infected patients. Although vaccines are available for a subset of adults, further investigation of the molecular interactions between RSV and the host remains essential to understanding this prolific pathogen. To aid our understanding of the host response in both RSV infected cells, and uninfected bystanders, we utilized single-cell RNA sequencing.
Project description:Respiratory Syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of childhood viral bronchiolitis and lung injury. Inflammatory responses significantly contribute to lung pathologies during RSV infections and bronchiolitis but the exact mechanisms have not been completely defined. The double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase (PKR) functions to inhibit viral replication and participates in several signaling pathways associated with innate inflammatory immune responses. Using a functionally defective PKR (PKR-/-) mouse model, we investigated the role of this kinase in early events of RSV-induced inflammation. Our data showed that bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of infected PKR-/- mice had significantly lower levels of several innate inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Histological examinations revealed that there was less lung injury in infected PKR-/- mice as compared to the wild type. A genome-wide analysis showed that several early anti viral and immune regulatory genes were affected by PKR activation. These data suggest that PKR is a signaling molecule for immune responses during RSV infections.
Project description:Although childhood asthma is in part an airway epithelial disorder, the development of the airway epithelium in asthma is not understood. We sought to characterize airway epithelial developmental phenotypes in those with and without recurrent wheeze and the impact of infant infection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Nasal airway epithelial cells (NAECs) were collected at age 2-3 years from an a priori designed nested birth cohort of children from four mutually exclusive groups of wheezers/non-wheezers and RSV-infected/uninfected in the first year of life. NAECs were cultured in air-liquid interface differentiation conditions followed by a combined analysis of single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and in vitro infection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). NAECs from children with a wheeze phenotype were characterized by abnormal differentiation and basal cell activation of developmental pathways, plasticity in precursor differentiation and a delayed onset of maturation. NAECs from children with wheeze also had increased diversity of currently known RSV receptors and blunted anti-viral immune responses to in vitro infection. The most dramatic changes in differentiation of cultured epithelium were observed in NAECs derived from children that had both wheeze and RSV in the first year of life. Together this suggests that airway epithelium in children with wheeze is developmentally reprogrammed and characterized by increased barrier permeability, decreased antiviral response, and increased RSV receptors, which may predispose to and amplify the effects of RSV infection in infancy and susceptibility to other asthma risk factors that interact with the airway mucosa.