Publications by authors named "L J Begley"
Article Synopsis
- The airway microbiome may influence the development and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but its impact on milder cases remains unclear.
- The study analyzed sputum DNA from 877 participants, mostly with milder COPD (stages 0-2), to examine the relationship between microbiome characteristics and various health markers.
- It found that greater diversity in the airway microbiome correlated with better lung function and fewer symptoms, while lower diversity was linked to worse outcomes, suggesting that microbiome features could help predict lung health over time.
Airway microbiota and immune mediator relationships differ in obesity and asthma.
J Allergy Clin Immunol
April 2023
Background: Asthma and obesity are both complex conditions characterized by chronic inflammation, and obesity-related severe asthma has been associated with differences in the microbiome. However, whether the airway microbiome and microbiota-immune response relationships differ between obese persons with or without nonsevere asthma is unestablished.
Objective: We compared the airway microbiome and microbiota-immune mediator relationships between obese and nonobese subjects, with and without mild-moderate asthma.
Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are commonly prescribed first-line treatments for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Recent evidence has shown that ICS use is associated with changes in the airway microbiome, which may impact clinical outcomes such as potential increased risk for pneumonia in COPD. Although the immunomodulatory effects of corticosteroids are well appreciated, whether ICS could directly influence the behavior of respiratory tract bacteria has been unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWater-group gas continuously escapes from Jupiter's icy moons to form co-orbiting populations of particles or neutral toroidal clouds. These clouds provide insights into their source moons as they reveal loss processes and compositions of their parent bodies, alter local plasma composition, and act as sources and sinks for magnetospheric particles. We report the first observations of H pickup ions in Jupiter's magnetosphere from 13 to 18 Jovian radii and find a density ratio of H /H = 8 ± 4%, confirming the presence of a neutral H toroidal cloud.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- COPD development varies, and the lung microbiota and metabolites may influence its pathophysiology, particularly in milder stages where relationships to clinical outcomes are not well understood.
- Researchers analyzed lung microbiome and metabolomic data from 137 participants in the SPIROMICS study to identify components associated with clinical markers in milder COPD.
- Findings indicated that lower lung function and greater symptoms correlated with specific microbiome and metabolite compositions, while some metabolites were linked to better lung function and fewer symptoms, suggesting that these components may work together in the disease's progression.