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Dysregulated pulmonary inflammatory responses exacerbate the outcome of secondary aspergillosis following influenza

Lee, Chrono K
Oliveira, Lorena V N
Akalin, Ali
Specht, Charles A
Lourenco, Diana
Gomez, Christina L
Ramirez-Ortiz, Zaida G
Wang, Jennifer P
Levitz, Stuart M
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Abstract

Severe influenza is a risk factor for fatal invasive pulmonary aspergillosis; however, the mechanistic basis for the lethality is unclear. Utilizing an influenza-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (IAPA) model, we found that mice infected with influenza A virus followed by had 100% mortality when superinfected during the early stages of influenza but survived at later stages. While superinfected mice had dysregulated pulmonary inflammatory responses compared to controls, they had neither increased inflammation nor extensive fungal growth. Although influenza-infected mice had dampened neutrophil recruitment to the lungs following subsequent challenge with , influenza did not affect the ability of neutrophils to clear the fungi. Our data suggest that the lethality seen in our model of IAPA is multifactorial with dysregulated inflammation being a greater contributor than uncontrollable microbial growth. If confirmed in humans, our findings provide a rationale for clinical studies of adjuvant anti-inflammatory agents in the treatment of IAPA.

Source

Lee CK, Oliveira LVN, Akalin A, Specht CA, Lourenco D, Gomez CL, Ramirez-Ortiz ZG, Wang JP, Levitz SM. Dysregulated pulmonary inflammatory responses exacerbate the outcome of secondary aspergillosis following influenza. mBio. 2023 Oct 31;14(5):e0163323. doi: 10.1128/mbio.01633-23. Epub 2023 Sep 8. PMID: 37681974; PMCID: PMC10653922.

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DOI
10.1128/mbio.01633-23
PubMed ID
37681974
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This article is based on a previously available preprint in bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.27.546808.

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Copyright © 2023 Lee et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license