Publications by authors named "Weersink E"

Introduction: Asthma control is often suboptimal, which is associated with incorrect medication use and poor asthma management by patients. Astmakompas, a digital self-management intervention, comprises a mobile app for patients, a web portal for healthcare professionals (HCP), and a wireless spirometer. Together, these components are intended to facilitate symptom monitoring, patient-HCP communication and assist in asthma-related self-management.

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Background: Months after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, at least 10% of patients still experience complaints. Long-COVID (coronavirus disease 2019) is a heterogeneous disease, and clustering efforts revealed multiple phenotypes on a clinical level. However, the molecular pathways underlying long-COVID phenotypes are still poorly understood.

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Background: Four months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, 22%-50% of COVID-19 patients still experience complaints. Long COVID is a heterogeneous disease and finding subtypes could aid in optimising and developing treatment for the individual patient.

Methods: Data were collected from 95 patients in the P4O2 COVID-19 cohort at 3-6 months after infection.

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Background: Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a bronchoscopic treatment for severe asthma. Although multiple trials have demonstrated clinical improvement after BT, optimal patient selection remains a challenge and the mechanism of action is incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to examine whether exhaled breath analysis can contribute to discriminate between BT-responders and non-responders at baseline and to explore pathophysiological insights of BT.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the long-term effects of bronchial thermoplasty (BT) on airway smooth muscle (ASM) in patients with severe asthma over a 2.5-year period.
  • Results show a more than 50% reduction in ASM mass, along with improved asthma control, quality of life, and fewer exacerbations.
  • There is a notable correlation between the remaining ASM and asthma-related metrics, including exacerbation rates and lung function tests, indicating ongoing effects of BT treatment.
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Purpose: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a monogenetic disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein and affecting multiple organs, including the lungs and liver. Almost 90% of people affected carry at least 1 Phe508del CFTR mutation. Medical treatment with the CFTR-modulating drug elexacaftor-tezacaftor-ivacaftor (ETI) has been proven to be efficacious in carriers of at least 1 Phe508del CFTR mutation.

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Background: Airway remodeling is a prominent feature of asthma, which involves increased airway smooth muscle mass and altered extracellular matrix composition. Bronchial thermoplasty (BT), a bronchoscopic treatment for severe asthma, targets airway remodeling.

Objective: We sought to investigate the effect of BT on extracellular matrix composition and its association with clinical outcomes.

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: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the death of almost 7 million people, however, with a cumulative incidence of 0.76 billion, most people survive COVID-19. Several studies indicate that the acute phase of COVID-19 may be followed by persistent symptoms including fatigue, dyspnea, headache, musculoskeletal symptoms, and pulmonary functional-and radiological abnormalities.

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Background: Many patients with severe asthma are overweight or obese, often attributed to unintentional weight gain as a side effect of oral corticosteroids (OCSs). Anti-IL-5/5Ra biologics significantly reduce OCS use, but their long-term effects on weight are unknown.

Objectives: To examine (1) weight change up to 2 years after anti-IL-5/5Ra initiation in subgroups on the basis of maintenance OCS use at start of treatment and (2) whether cumulative OCS exposure before or changes in OCS exposure during treatment are related to weight change.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bronchiectasis is a common issue in severe eosinophilic asthma patients, impacting disease severity, but its effect on IL-5 biologic treatment is unclear.
  • A study of 97 adults showed that anti-IL-5/5Ra therapy significantly reduced asthma exacerbations and the need for oral corticosteroids (OCS).
  • After one year of treatment, exacerbation rates dropped from 74.5% to 22.1%, and the number of patients on maintenance OCS decreased from 47% to 30%, highlighting the therapy's effectiveness even in those with bronchiectasis.
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Objective: Asthma control is generally monitored by assessing symptoms and lung function. However, optimal treatment is also dependent on the type and extent of airway inflammation. Fraction of exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) is a noninvasive biomarker of type 2 airway inflammation, but its effectiveness in guiding asthma treatment remains disputed.

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Introduction: Type 2 targeting biologics have reached the market first for asthma and since 2019 also for CRSwNP. As clear guidelines and predictors for optimal biological choice are missing, patients are sometimes required to switch biologic therapy in order to find the optimal treatment result. In this paper, we evaluate reasons for switching biologics and the treatment effects after each sequential switch.

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Background: Preclinical cell-based assays that recapitulate human disease play an important role in drug repurposing. We previously developed a functional forskolin induced swelling (FIS) assay using patient-derived intestinal organoids (PDIOs), allowing functional characterization of CFTR, the gene mutated in people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF). CFTR function-increasing pharmacotherapies have revolutionized treatment for approximately 85% of people with CF who carry the most prevalent F508del-CFTR mutation, but a large unmet need remains to identify new treatments for all pwCF.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates bronchial thermoplasty (BT), a treatment for severe asthma, focusing on its effects on airway inflammation and gene expression in patients.
  • Researchers analyzed samples from 28 patients before and after BT, looking at gene expression, inflammatory cell counts, and cytokines to determine treatment effectiveness.
  • Results showed reduced inflammatory gene expression in treated airways, but no significant changes in cell counts or cytokines; responders exhibited distinct gene patterns and higher eosinophil levels compared to non-responders.
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Purpose: It is suggested that the early phase (< 50 ms) of force development during a muscle contraction is associated with intrinsic contractile properties, while the late phase (> 50 ms) is associated with maximal force. There are no direct investigations of single muscle fibre rate of force development (RFD) as related to joint-level RFD METHODS: Sixteen healthy, young (n = 8; 26.4 ± 1.

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Background: Reslizumab, a biologic targeting IL-5, has been shown to reduce asthma exacerbations and maintenance oral corticosteroid use in randomized controlled trials and pre-post studies in patients with severe eosinophilic asthma. However, real-world effectiveness data of reslizumab are scarce, and it is unknown whether reslizumab has added value after switching from another type 2 biologic.

Objective: To evaluate (1) the real-world effectiveness of reslizumab on severe asthma exacerbations, maintenance oral corticosteroid use, and overall treatment response, both in biologic-naive patients who initiated reslizumab and in those who switched from another type 2 biologic; and (2) physicians' experience with reslizumab treatment.

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Currently available European Alpine Altitude Climate Treatment (AACT) programs combine the physical characteristics of altitude with the avoidance of environmental triggers in the alpine climate and a personalized multidisciplinary pulmonary rehabilitation approach. The reduced barometric pressure, oxygen pressure, and air density, the relatively low temperature and humidity, and the increased UV radiation at moderate altitude induce several physiological and immunological adaptation responses. The environmental characteristics of the alpine climate include reduced aeroallergens such as house dust mites (HDM), pollen, fungi, and less air pollution.

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Rationale: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a monogenic life-shortening disease associated with highly variable individual disease progression which is difficult to predict. Here we assessed the association of forskolin-induced swelling (FIS) of patient-derived organoids with long-term CF disease progression in multiple organs and compared FIS with the golden standard biomarker sweat chloride concentration (SCC).

Methods: We retrieved 9-year longitudinal clinical data from the Dutch CF Registry of 173 people with mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator () gene.

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Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that can lead to exacerbations, defined as acute episodes of worsening respiratory symptoms and lung function. Predicting the occurrence of these exacerbations is an important goal in asthma management. The measurement of exhaled breath by electronic nose (eNose) may allow for the monitoring of clinically unstable asthma and exacerbations.

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Background: Pharmacotherapies for people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) who have premature termination codons (PTCs) in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene are under development. Thus far, clinical studies focused on compounds that induce translational readthrough (RT) at the mRNA PTC location. Recent studies using primary airway cells showed that PTC functional restoration can be achieved through combining compounds with multiple mode-of-actions.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the effectiveness of cough swabs analyzed with culture-independent methods as a substitute for traditional sputum cultures in detecting lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients who struggle to expectorate sputum.
  • Researchers collected paired cough swabs and sputum samples from 22 adults and 8 children with CF, comparing the microbial diversity and identifying the accuracy of pathogen detection between the two methods.
  • Findings revealed that cough swabs often failed to accurately identify common CF-related pathogens, leading to the conclusion that this method shouldn't be used for diagnosing lower respiratory infections in CF patients.
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Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is an important respiratory pathogen for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Routine microbiology surveillance is time-consuming, and is best performed on expectorated sputum. As alternative, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) may be indicative of PA colonisation.

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Rationale: Targeted cystic fibrosis (CF) therapy with lumacaftor/ivacaftor partly restores chloride channel function and improves epithelial fluid transport in the airways. Consequently, changes may occur in the microbiome, which is adapted to CF lungs.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of lumacaftor/ivacaftor on respiratory microbial composition and microbial metabolic activity by repeatedly sampling the lower respiratory tract.

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