Among children worldwide, asthma is a very prevalent chronic condition and can impact these individuals’ health in numerous ways. When someone has asthma the airways and tubes that transport air in the lungs can narrow and make breathing more difficult for the patient. Pediatric asthma can develop because of many possible factors, including genetic causes, environmental exposures, how frequently a child takes antibiotics, and as is discussed in this study, the microbiota that are present in the child’s airway. Microbiota refers to the diverse range of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in our bodies and affect our health.
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A study done from 2016-2018 in a population of Chilean children showed evidence of differences in the microbiota that were present in the patient’s airway for healthy children compared to children with asthma. The researchers used rRNA sequencing, which is a genome technology that can identify which specific bacteria are present in a patient’s airway. They analyzed both oral microbiota and nasal microbiota. In the nasal areas, the researchers found less microbiota diversity in patients with asthma than without, and an increased presence of streptococcus, which is a type of bacteria responsible for causing certain types of infections in patients. The oral microbiota, on the other hand, was not found to be significantly different in children with versus without asthma. Researchers also found that people with asthma had more complex interactions between different bacteria species in their airways than the comparable healthy patients sampled. This study included airway microbiota samples from 152 patients, with a split between healthy children and children with asthma: 89 children without asthma and 63 children who have asthma all in the Santiago population of Chile.
Although the study may have some limitations due to the sample size and population of patients involved, it established how populations can differ in disease-causing microbiota and emphasizes the importance of the inclusion of diverse populations in health research studies. Links between microbiota and respiratory health conditions can help scientists and public health experts better understand how to potentially target microbiota that are involved in diseases, like asthma, that affect significant percentages of the population.
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