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We have been studying the importance of the epithelial cells lining the airways in the nose and lungs.
Macrophages are the major resident immune cells in human airways coordinating responses to infection and injury. In cystic fibrosis, neutrophils are recruited to the airways shortly after birth, and actively exocytose damaging enzymes prior to chronic infection, suggesting a potential defect in macrophage immunomodulatory function.
The airway epithelium of children with asthma is characterized by aberrant repair that may be therapeutically modifiable. The development of epithelial-targeting therapeutics that enhance airway repair could provide a novel treatment avenue for childhood asthma.
Biodiesel is created through the transesterification of fats/oils and its usage is increasing worldwide as global warming concerns increase. Biodiesel fuel properties change depending on the feedstock used to create it.
Cystic fibrosis (CF), due to pathogenic variants in CFTR gene, is associated with chronic infection/inflammation responsible for airway epithelium alteration and lung function decline. Modifier genes induce phenotype variability between people with CF (pwCF) carrying the same CFTR variants. Among these, the gene encoding for the amino acid transporter SLC6A14 has been associated with lung disease severity and age of primary airway infection by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Severity and disease progression in people with Cystic Fibrosis is typically dependent on their genotype. One potential therapeutic strategy for people with specific mutations is exon skipping with antisense oligonucleotides. CFTR exon 9 is an in-frame exon and hence the exclusion of this exon would excise only 31 amino acids but not alter the reading frame of the remaining mRNA.
The anti-inflammatory peptide, adrenomedullin (AM), and its cognate receptor are expressed in lung tissue, but its pathophysiological significance in airway...
Long-term survival after lung transplantation is hindered by the development of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS).
Asthma is the commonest medical cause for hospital admission for children in Australia, affects more than 300 million people worldwide, and is incurable...
The underlying pathogenesis of pediatric obstructive sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and recurrent tonsillitis (RT) are poorly understood but need to be elucidated to develop less invasive treatment and prevention strategies.