Publications by authors named "Airidas Rimkunas"

Eosinophils are central inflammatory cells in asthma; however, a portion of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have blood or sputum eosinophilia, a condition termed eosinophilic COPD (eCOPD), which may contribute to the progression of the disease. We hypothesize that eosinophilic inflammation in eCOPD patients is related to Type 2 (T2)-high inflammation seen in asthma and that serum mediators might help us to identify T2-high inflammation in patients and choose an appropriate personalized treatment strategy. Thus, we aimed to investigate ten serum levels of T2-high inflammation mediators in eCOPD patients and compare them to severe non-allergic eosinophilic asthma (SNEA) patients.

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Asthma is a chronic inflammatory process that leads to airway narrowing, causing breath loss followed by spasms, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Within the asthmatic lungs, interaction among various immune cells and structural cells plays a significant role in orchestrating an inflammatory response in which eosinophils hold central importance. In these settings, allergens or other environmental exposures commonly drive the immune response to recruit eosinophils to the airways.

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Anti-interleukin (IL) 5 is an effective treatment modality for inhibiting eosinophilic inflammation in patients with T2-high severe asthma. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical efficacy and serum levels of type 2 inflammatory mediators during 24 weeks of mepolizumab treatment in patients with T2-high severe asthma. Eighteen patients with T2-high severe asthma were enrolled in this study.

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: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has significant systemic manifestations, including cardiovascular morbidity. The main aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of short-term COPD treatment with tiotropium/olodaterol (TIO/OLO) 5/5 μg on cardiac function and autonomic integrity. : Twenty-nine patients with newly diagnosed moderate-to-severe COPD were enrolled.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the potential of serum biomarkers to differentiate the allergic asthma (AA) phenotype among patients, identifying specific substances that could indicate the condition.
  • Twenty steroid-free AA patients and sixteen healthy subjects were analyzed for ten biologically active substances in their blood before and after bronchial allergen challenges.
  • Significant findings included increased levels of sIL-5Rα and TRX1, and decreased levels of MET, PTX3, and ICTP in AA patients, suggesting these markers may help in diagnosing and understanding allergic asthma.
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Article Synopsis
  • Airway remodeling in asthma involves increased airway smooth muscle mass and altered extracellular matrix homeostasis, influenced by eosinophil subtypes.
  • Blood eosinophils from allergic and severe eosinophilic asthma patients were studied for their effects on airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell behavior, including proliferation and migration.
  • Results indicated that eosinophil subtypes enhanced the expression of genes related to muscle contraction and ECM components in ASM cells, with a stronger impact observed from lung resident-like eosinophils in severe cases.
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Blood eosinophils can be described as inflammatory-like (iEOS-like) and lung-resident-like (rEOS-like) eosinophils. This study is based on the hypothesis that eosinophilopoetins such as interleukin (IL)-3 and IL-5 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) alter the proliferative properties of eosinophil subtypes and may be associated with the expression of their receptors on eosinophils. We investigated 8 individuals with severe nonallergic eosinophilic asthma (SNEA), 17 nonsevere allergic asthma (AA), and 11 healthy subjects (HS).

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The impaired production of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins by airway smooth muscle cells (ASMC) and pulmonary fibroblasts (PF) is a part of airway remodeling in asthma. This process might be influenced by eosinophils that migrate to the airway and abundantly secrete various cytokines, including TGF-β. We aimed to investigate the effect of asthmatic eosinophils on the gene expression of ECM proteins in ASMC and PF.

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Eosinophilic inflammation is one of the main pathophysiological features in asthma. Two subtypes of eosinophils exist in the lung and systemic circulation: lung-resident eosinophils (rEOS) and inflammatory eosinophils (iEOS). We evaluated the expression of αβ and αβ integrins of eosinophil subtypes and their influence on airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell proliferation and viability in asthma.

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