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2012-09-15 02:37:32 UTC
This seems like it may hold some promise...
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/09/12718/sinusitis-linked-microbial-diversity
Sinusitis Linked to Microbial Diversity
UCSF Study Suggests New Approach for Dealing with Common Ailment
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By Jason Bardi on September 12, 2012
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A common bacteria ever-present on the human skin and previously
considered harmless, may, in fact, be the culprit behind chronic
sinusitis, a painful, recurring swelling of the sinuses that strikes
more than one in ten Americans each year, according to a study by
scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Susan Lynch, PhD
Susan Lynch, PhD
The team reports this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine
that sinusitis may be linked to the loss of normal microbial diversity
within the sinuses following an infection and the subsequent
colonization of the sinuses by the culprit bacterium, which is called
Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum.
In their study, the researchers compared the microbial communities in
samples from the sinuses of 10 patients with sinusitis and from 10
healthy people, and showed that the sinusitis patients lacked a slew of
bacteria that were present in the healthy individuals. The patients also
had large increases in the amount of Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum
in their sinuses, which are located in the forehead, cheeks and eyes.
The team also identified a common bacterium found within the sinuses of
healthy people called Lactobacillus sakei that seems to help the body
naturally ward off sinusitis. In laboratory experiments, inoculating
mice with this one bacterium defended them against the condition.
“Presumably these are sinus-protective species,” said Susan Lynch, PhD,
an associate professor of medicine and director of the Colitis and
Crohn’s Disease Microbiome Research Core at UCSF.
What it all suggests, she added, is that the sinuses are home to a
diverse “microbiome” that includes protective bacteria. These “microbial
shields” are lost during chronic sinusitis, she said, and restoring the
natural microbial ecology may be a way of mitigating this common condition.
A Painful, Costly Condition
Sinuses are air-filled cavities in the front of the skull that connect
to the nasal passages and are lined with mucosal surfaces. They are
somewhat shrouded in mystery. Scientists are not entirely sure what they
do. They may exist to heat air as it passes into the body, they may be
associated with the immune system, or as Lynch and her colleagues
speculate, they may represent a site of microbial surveillance just
inside the nose where the body can sample bacteria and other microbes
entering the body.
Though the sinuses’ underlying purpose is still unclear, they are all
too familiar to American doctors and their patients because of what
happens when the thin tissues lining them become inflamed, as occurs in
chronic sinusitis — one of the most common reasons why people go to the
doctor in the United States. There are about 30 million cases each year,
and the cost to the healthcare system is an estimated $2.4 billion
dollars annually.
The pain of sinusitis can last for months. Doctors typically prescribe
bacteria-killing antibiotics and, in more severe and long-lasting cases,
conduct sinus surgeries. However, said Andrew Goldberg, MSCE, MD, the
director of rhinology and sinus surgery at UCSF and a co-author on the
paper, “the premise for our understanding of chronic sinusitis and
therapeutic treatment appears to be wrong, and a different therapeutic
strategy seems appropriate.”
The new work suggests that if the underlying cause of sinusitis is due
to changes to the microbiome of bacterial species colonizing sinus
tissue, restoring the naturally-occurring, protective bacteria to these
cavities may be an effective way to treat this condition.
However, the UCSF-led team warned that the promise of this discovery
does not offer an immediate new treatment or cure for sinusitis. Any new
approaches based on these observations still have to be developed and
tested for safety and effectiveness in human clinical trials.
The article, “Sinus Microbiome Diversity Depletion and Corynebacterium
tuberculostearicum Enrichment Mediates Rhinosinusitis” by Nicole A.
Abreu, Nabeetha A. Nagalingam, Yuanlin Song, Frederick C. Roediger,
Steven D. Pletcher, Andrew N. Goldberg, and Susan V. Lynch appears in
the September 12, 2012, issue of Science Translational Medicine.
In addition to UCSF, authors on this study are affiliated with San
Francisco State University, the University of California Berkley, and
Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
This study was supported by the American Rhinological Society, the
Rainin Foundation, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (one of the National Institutes of Health), the Minority
Biomedical Research Support-Research Initiative for Scientific
Enhancement (MBRS-RISE), the California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine, and the Rebecca Susan Buffett Foundation.
Lynch is a member of the advisory board of Second Genome, which is
developing treatments for human diseases based on microbiome research,
and she is one of three co-authors on the paper who have filed a patent
application for sinusitis diagnostics and treatments.
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/09/12718/sinusitis-linked-microbial-diversity
Sinusitis Linked to Microbial Diversity
UCSF Study Suggests New Approach for Dealing with Common Ailment
Share this story:
Share
By Jason Bardi on September 12, 2012
A common bacteria ever-present on the human skin and previously
considered harmless, may, in fact, be the culprit behind chronic
sinusitis, a painful, recurring swelling of the sinuses that strikes
more than one in ten Americans each year, according to a study by
scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Susan Lynch, PhD
Susan Lynch, PhD
The team reports this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine
that sinusitis may be linked to the loss of normal microbial diversity
within the sinuses following an infection and the subsequent
colonization of the sinuses by the culprit bacterium, which is called
Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum.
In their study, the researchers compared the microbial communities in
samples from the sinuses of 10 patients with sinusitis and from 10
healthy people, and showed that the sinusitis patients lacked a slew of
bacteria that were present in the healthy individuals. The patients also
had large increases in the amount of Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum
in their sinuses, which are located in the forehead, cheeks and eyes.
The team also identified a common bacterium found within the sinuses of
healthy people called Lactobacillus sakei that seems to help the body
naturally ward off sinusitis. In laboratory experiments, inoculating
mice with this one bacterium defended them against the condition.
“Presumably these are sinus-protective species,” said Susan Lynch, PhD,
an associate professor of medicine and director of the Colitis and
Crohn’s Disease Microbiome Research Core at UCSF.
What it all suggests, she added, is that the sinuses are home to a
diverse “microbiome” that includes protective bacteria. These “microbial
shields” are lost during chronic sinusitis, she said, and restoring the
natural microbial ecology may be a way of mitigating this common condition.
A Painful, Costly Condition
Sinuses are air-filled cavities in the front of the skull that connect
to the nasal passages and are lined with mucosal surfaces. They are
somewhat shrouded in mystery. Scientists are not entirely sure what they
do. They may exist to heat air as it passes into the body, they may be
associated with the immune system, or as Lynch and her colleagues
speculate, they may represent a site of microbial surveillance just
inside the nose where the body can sample bacteria and other microbes
entering the body.
Though the sinuses’ underlying purpose is still unclear, they are all
too familiar to American doctors and their patients because of what
happens when the thin tissues lining them become inflamed, as occurs in
chronic sinusitis — one of the most common reasons why people go to the
doctor in the United States. There are about 30 million cases each year,
and the cost to the healthcare system is an estimated $2.4 billion
dollars annually.
The pain of sinusitis can last for months. Doctors typically prescribe
bacteria-killing antibiotics and, in more severe and long-lasting cases,
conduct sinus surgeries. However, said Andrew Goldberg, MSCE, MD, the
director of rhinology and sinus surgery at UCSF and a co-author on the
paper, “the premise for our understanding of chronic sinusitis and
therapeutic treatment appears to be wrong, and a different therapeutic
strategy seems appropriate.”
The new work suggests that if the underlying cause of sinusitis is due
to changes to the microbiome of bacterial species colonizing sinus
tissue, restoring the naturally-occurring, protective bacteria to these
cavities may be an effective way to treat this condition.
However, the UCSF-led team warned that the promise of this discovery
does not offer an immediate new treatment or cure for sinusitis. Any new
approaches based on these observations still have to be developed and
tested for safety and effectiveness in human clinical trials.
The article, “Sinus Microbiome Diversity Depletion and Corynebacterium
tuberculostearicum Enrichment Mediates Rhinosinusitis” by Nicole A.
Abreu, Nabeetha A. Nagalingam, Yuanlin Song, Frederick C. Roediger,
Steven D. Pletcher, Andrew N. Goldberg, and Susan V. Lynch appears in
the September 12, 2012, issue of Science Translational Medicine.
In addition to UCSF, authors on this study are affiliated with San
Francisco State University, the University of California Berkley, and
Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
This study was supported by the American Rhinological Society, the
Rainin Foundation, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (one of the National Institutes of Health), the Minority
Biomedical Research Support-Research Initiative for Scientific
Enhancement (MBRS-RISE), the California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine, and the Rebecca Susan Buffett Foundation.
Lynch is a member of the advisory board of Second Genome, which is
developing treatments for human diseases based on microbiome research,
and she is one of three co-authors on the paper who have filed a patent
application for sinusitis diagnostics and treatments.