Publications by authors named "Roxane Boivin"

Article Synopsis
  • Neutrophilic inflammation is linked to airway obstruction in severe equine asthma (SEA), but the role of neutrophils in airway remodeling is not fully understood.
  • This study investigates how neutrophil-derived exosomes, particularly their microRNAs (miRs), affect airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell proliferation in SEA horses.
  • Results show that miR-21 is downregulated in neutrophil exosomes from SEA horses, which may lead to increased ASM proliferation and contribute to bronchial wall thickening.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to analyze the expression of dectin-1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from asthmatic and nonasthmatic horses, create antibodies against equine dectin-1, and assess fungal exposure in different housing conditions (pastured vs. stabled).
  • Researchers used BALF samples from 6 asthmatic and 6 healthy horses, employing techniques like qPCR to quantify dectin-1 expression and fungal presence.
  • Results indicated that stabling increased fungal exposure and altered dectin-1 levels, but asthmatic horses showed fewer fungi in their lower airways, likely due to airway congestion, highlighting the need to minimize indoor mold exposure for horses.
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Steroid resistance in asthma has been associated with neutrophilic inflammation and severe manifestations of the disease. Macrolide add-on therapy can improve the quality of life and the exacerbation rate in refractory cases, possibly with greater effectiveness in neutrophilic phenotypes. The mechanisms leading to these beneficial effects are incompletely understood and whether macrolides potentiate the modulation of bronchial remodeling induced by inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is unknown.

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Severe equine asthma is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness, neutrophilic inflammation and structural alterations of the lower airways. In asthmatic horses with neutrophilic inflammation, there is insensitivity to corticosteroids characterized by the persistence of neutrophils within the airways with therapy. We hypothesized that hypoxia or oxidative stress in the microenvironment of the lung contributes to this insensitivity of neutrophils to corticosteroids in asthmatic horses.

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Severe asthma is associated with an increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass and altered composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Studies have indicated that ECM-ASM cell interactions contribute to this remodeling and its limited reversibility with current therapy. Three-dimensional matrices allow the study of complex cellular responses to different stimuli in an almost natural environment.

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Background: There are limited data on potential dysbiosis of the airway microbiota in horses with asthma.

Hypothesis/objectives: We hypothesized that the respiratory microbiota of horses with moderate asthma is altered. Our objectives were (a) to quantify tracheal bacterial populations using culture and qPCR, (2) to compare aerobic culture and qPCR, and (c) to correlate bacterial populations with bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cytology.

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A gelding from eastern Canada was presented for cough and exercise intolerance 14 months after it had travelled on Vancouver Island. pneumonia was diagnosed based on cytology, antigen titers, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The horse was treated with fluconazole for 10 months.

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Airway wall remodeling, including hyperplasia and hypertrophy of smooth muscle (ASM) cells leading to an increased smooth muscle mass, is considered central to asthma. However, molecular pathways responsible for ASM remodeling remain poorly understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as key regulators of inflammatory and repair processes affecting the lungs and can downregulate protein expression by inhibiting target mRNA translation.

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Treatments for mild forms of equine asthma are extrapolated from those recommended for severe equine asthma (heaves), but little is known about owner's adherence to recommendations and treatment efficacy. The objective was to determine which recommendations are implemented by owners and their perception of the clinical response to treatment. Medical records of 43 horses diagnosed with moderate asthma between 2010 and 2012 were retrieved from the Université de Montréal database.

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Smooth muscle has a central role in bronchospasm-induced airway obstruction in asthma. Alternative mRNA splicing of the smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (myh11) gene produces four different isoforms, one of which (SMB) is characterized by the inclusion of the exon5b, which doubles the smooth muscle cells contraction velocity. Deciphering the regulation of the expression levels of the SMB isoform would represent a major step for the understanding of the triggers and pathways leading to airway smooth muscle contraction in asthma.

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There is evidence that the lung microbiome differs between patients with asthma and healthy humans, but the effect of environmental conditions and medication is unknown and difficult to study. Equine asthma is a naturally occurring chronic airway disease characterized by reversible airway inflammation and bronchoconstriction upon exposure to inhaled antigens. In the present study, we evaluated the effect that environmental conditions and disease status have on pulmonary, nasal, and oral microbiomes.

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Recurrent inflammation in severe equine asthma causes a remodeling of the airways leading to incompletely reversible airway obstruction. Despite the improvement of clinical signs and lung function with glucocorticoids (GC), inflammation, translated by an increased percentage of neutrophils, persists in the airways. Regulatory T cells (Treg) have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties and play an important role in balancing the immune response by suppressing effector lymphocyte activity.

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Background: Severe neutrophilic asthma is poorly responsive to glucocorticosteroids (GC). Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) within the lungs have been associated with the severity of airway obstruction and inflammation in asthma, and were found to be unaffected by GC in vitro. As IL-17 is overexpressed in neutrophilic asthma and contributes to steroid insensitivity in different cell types, we hypothesized that NETs formation in asthmatic airways would be resistant to GC through an IL-17 mediated pathway.

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Rationale: Overexpression of the (+)insert smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SMMHC) isoform could contribute to airway bronchospasm by increasing the velocity of contraction. Whether the (+)insert isoform is present in the small airways and its expression is reversible in asthma are unknown.

Objectives: To determine the anatomical location and the expression kinetics of the (+)insert SMMHC isoform in airways of horses with heaves and to evaluate its modulation in response to disease status.

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