Extract
Historically, it was widely believed that the lower respiratory tract was sterile in health, a “dogma” based on the fact that studies previously employing extensive microbiological culturing of airway samples could not identify the presence of any commensal bacteria. However, the vast majority of respiratory bacteria are recognised to be unculturable by traditional methods and so it has required the application of highly sensitive molecular microbiological techniques, such as 16S rRNA sequencing, to irrefutably demonstrate the existence of complex communities of symbiotic bacteria (“microbiota”) present within the healthy lower airways [1–3].
Abstract
C. Rigauts and co-workers provide insight into a previously unrecognised role for the airway commensal Rothia mucilaginosa in attenuating proinflammatory responses to P. aeruginosa, an effect demonstrated consistently across a range of experimental models https://bit.ly/3EIs9nv
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: R. Morton reports grants from Imperial College London (MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship), outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: A. Singanayagam reports grants from Medical Research Council (Clinician Scientist Fellowship), British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (COVID-19 grant) and British Medical Association (James Trust research grant); lecture honoraria from AstraZeneca; outside the submitted work.
Support statement: A. Singanayagam is supported by an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received December 3, 2021.
- Accepted December 4, 2021.
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