Project description:Little is known about the lung microbiome dynamics and host-microbiome interactions in relation to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations and in patient subgroups based on smoking status and disease severity. Here we performed a 16S ribosomal RNA survey on sputum microbiome from 16 healthy and 43 COPD subjects. For COPD subjects, a longitudinal sampling was performed from stable state to exacerbations, at two and six weeks post-exacerbations and at six months from first stable visit. Host sputum transcriptome were characterized for a subset of COPD patient samples.
Project description:To better understand the molecular determinants of lung disease variability among patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), we carried out an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) in sputum samples from patients with CF. Sputum samples were collected from 50 patients with CF at four time points (visit 1, 2, 3 and 4) over an 18-month follow-up period. We profiled 64 sputum samples collected at visit 1 and 2, using human methylation BeadChips (EPIC). Selected CpG sites were reassessed in independent sputum samples collected at visit 3 and 4, by pyrosequencing. Overall, we provide the first longitudinal assessment of genome-wide DNA methylation in a cohort of patients with CF and identify CpG sites that predict clinical traits of key importance for lung disease. Specifically, we identified (i) differentially methylated CpG sites that correlate with lung function (FEV1pp), (ii) a DNA methylation signature that predicts patients with a pulmonary exacerbation and (iii) CpG sites that split patients with declining lung function from those whose lung function either improved or remained stable.
