People with allergy-induced sniffles and asthma may have different fungal colonies or mycobiomes in their noses, finds a study on Tuesday.The common respiratory disease, formally called allergic rhinitis, has frequently been associated with asthma. Typical symptoms of allergic rhinitis include sneezing, itching, inflamed nasal mucous membranes, and a blocked and runny nose. It’s often comorbid with asthma, which also involves inflammation and obstructed airways.
Researchers from the University of Porto, Portugal, showed that this association may be because of different fungal colonies or mycobiomes in their noses.
“We showed that allergic rhinitis samples displayed a significantly higher fungal diversity and a different fungal community structure compared to those of healthy controls,” said Dr. Luís Delgado of the University of Porto.
“This may suggest that allergic rhinitis increases the diversity and changes the composition of the upper airway’s microbiome.”
To study the nasal mycobiome, the researchers recruited 214 participants from among children and young adults attending an immunology and asthma clinic in Porto. About 155 patients had both allergic rhinitis and asthma, while 47 were only diagnosed with allergic rhinitis and 12 with asthma. The team also enrolled 125 healthy controls.
The team analysed 306 samples, taken via nasal swabs. DNA sequencing revealed Ascomycota and Basidiomycota as the most common fungi families across all samples. In these two families, 14 genera dominated the mycobiomes.