Got a Sniffly allergy? Your funky nasal thrush may be the culprit

With the arrival of spring, many of us will suffer from seasonal allergies. Scientists have recently identified some potential key differences between people with allergic rhinitis and those without it, and it has to do with nasal fungi.

An international team of researchers says that people with asthma and allergy-induced asthma have different fungal communities in their noses compared to people without symptoms. Their findings, detailed on December 17 He studies Published in the magazine Frontiers in microbiologyIt could have important applications for future allergy and asthma treatments.

“We showed that allergic rhinitis samples showed significantly higher fungal diversity and different fungal community structure compared to those in healthy controls,” said Luis Delgado from the University of Porto, who participated in the study. Frontiers in microbiology statement. Allergic rhinitis is the medical term for allergy symptoms such as stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, itching, and inflammation of the nasal membranes.

“This may indicate that allergic rhinitis increases diversity and changes the composition of the microbiome in the upper airway,” Delgado added. Allergic rhinitis is often associated with asthma, which also involves inflammation and obstruction of the airways. Researchers suggest that allergic rhinitis and asthma may be two sides of the same underlying condition.

The team, which includes researchers from George Washington University, took nasal swabs from 215 patients from the Immunology and Asthma Clinic in Porto, Portugal, in addition to 125 healthy people. Of the patients who presented to the clinic, 155 had allergic rhinitis and asthma, 47 had allergic rhinitis only, and 12 had asthma only.

They then sequenced the fungal DNA from the nasal swabs and “discovered common fungi that have been recognized in humans as allergenic or opportunistic,” Delgado said.

“This confirms at the fungal level what is already known about bacteria, which is that the nasal cavity is a major reservoir for opportunistic pathogens that can cause allergic rhinitis and asthma,” the researchers wrote in the study. While these pathogenic fungi were detected in all samples, Delgado and his colleagues found that the clinic’s patients had richer and more diverse fungal communities in their noses than healthy individuals. In addition, the team observed evidence suggesting that the fungi of patients with respiratory diseases influence the immune environment of the nose.

Perhaps more importantly, they also found an excess of 5-aminoimidazole ribonucleotide — a chemical compound associated with energy metabolism and DNA synthesis — in the noses of patients with respiratory diseases. The scientists note that with further research, this potential connection could guide future air-targeting therapies to treat or diagnose allergies and asthma.

The team plans to conduct follow-up studies, giving hope to the hundreds of millions of people who tell their friends that this is indeed the case Just sensitivity Every time they reach the tissue.