Endotypes of Paediatric Cough-Do They Exist and Finding New Techniques to Improve Clinical Outcomes.

Chronic cough is a common symptom of many childhood lung conditions. Given the phenotypic heterogeneity of chronic cough, better characterization through endotyping is required to provide diagnostic certainty, precision therapies and to identify pathobiological mechanisms. This review summarizes recent endotype discoveries in airway diseases, particularly in relation to children, and describes the multi-omic approaches that are required to define endotypes.

Cough Hypersensitivity Syndrome: Why Its Use Is Inappropriate in Children.

In children and adults, chronic cough is a common symptom presenting to health professionals worldwide. It is internationally accepted that children with chronic cough should be managed with pediatric specific management guidelines. The newly proposed clinical entity of 'cough hypersensitivity syndrome' has gained significant attention in adult literature.

Plasma Extracellular Vesicle miRNA Profiles Distinguish Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbations and Disease Severity.

Purpose: Molecular biomarkers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) severity have been difficult to identify. We aimed to assess extracellular vesicle miRNAs' potential as a blood biomarker in discriminating disease severity in participants with COPD.

Patients And Methods: Plasma extracellular vesicles (EVs) were obtained from two COPD cohorts (n = 20 during an exacerbation event, n = 20 during stable state), with varying disease severity (GOLD stages).

Burden of Care for Children with Bronchiectasis from Parents/Carers Perspective.

Bronchiectasis is a neglected chronic respiratory condition. In children optimal appropriate management can halt the disease process, and in some cases reverse the radiological abnormality. This requires many facets, including parental/carer bronchiectasis-specific knowledge, for which there is currently no such published data.

E-cigarettes induce toxicity comparable to tobacco cigarettes in airway epithelium from patients with COPD.

Background: The health effects of e-cigarettes in patients with pre-existing lung disease are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate whether aerosols from a fourth-generation e-cigarette produces similar in-vitro cytotoxic, DNA damage and inflammatory effects on bronchial epithelial cells (BECs) from patients with COPD, as cigarette smoke.

Methods: BECs from patients with COPD who underwent surgery for lung cancer and comparator (immortalised 16HBE) cells were grown at air liquid interface (ALI).

Plasma Extracellular Vesicle miRNAs Can Identify Lung Cancer, Current Smoking Status, and Stable COPD.

Unlabelled: Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. We aimed to test whether a simple blood biomarker (extracellular vesicle miRNAs) can discriminate between cases with and without lung cancer.

Methods: plasma extracellular vesicles (EVs) were isolated from four cohorts (n = 20 in each): healthy non-smokers, healthy smokers, lung cancer, and stable COPD participants.

Potential clinical utility of multiple target quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) array to detect microbial pathogens in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Background: Culture-independent methods such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) are more sensitive for detecting pathogens than conventional culture. This study aimed to test the clinical potential of a multiple target qPCR array in identifying sputum pathogens, compared to traditional culture.

Methods: Forty chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients provided spontaneous sputum and blood samples during an exacerbation event (n=25 patients) and in stable state (n=15 patients).

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer: common pathways for pathogenesis.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer comprise the leading causes of lung disease-related mortality worldwide. Exposure to tobacco smoke is a mutual aetiology underlying the two diseases, accounting for almost 90% of cases. There is accumulating evidence supporting the role of immune dysfunction, the lung microbiome, extracellular vesicles and underlying genetic susceptibility in the development of COPD and lung cancer.

Extracellular vesicles in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous disease characterised by chronic inflammation and significant airflow obstruction that is not fully reversible, and is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) (including apoptotic bodies, microvesicles and exosomes) are small membrane-bound vesicles released by nearly all cell types and can be found in various bodily fluids including blood, sputum and urine. EVs are key mediators in cell-cell communication due to their ability to exchange information to recipient cells, influencing physiological and pathological conditions using their bioactive cargo (DNA, RNA, miRNA, proteins and other metabolites).

The contribution of respiratory microbiome analysis to a treatable traits model of care.

The composition of the airway microbiome in patients with chronic airway diseases, such as severe asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis (CF), has the potential to inform a precision model of clinical care. Patients with these conditions share overlapping disease characteristics, including airway inflammation and airflow limitation. The clinical management of chronic respiratory conditions is increasingly moving away from a one-size-fits-all model based on primary diagnosis, towards care targeting individual disease traits, and is particularly useful for subgroups of patients who respond poorly to conventional therapies.