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Showing posts from November, 2013

Chronic sinusitis may be linked to an hyperactive immune system

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A recent study in JAMA Otolaryngology--Head& Neck Surgery , in October 2013, suggested that chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) may be caused by an overactive immune response to normal microbes, and not necessarily to bacterial infection. Investigators from Saint Louis University School of  Medicine in Missouri lead by Dr. Rajeev Aurora found that patients and healthy controls tended to have qualitatively similar microorganisms in their sinus cavity. While control patients sinus lavage samples triggered interleukin (IL)-5 production in peripheral blood leukocytes from patients, this did not occur with leukocytes from controls. The investigators obtained sinus cavity samples from thirty patients with CRS and 12 controls. They used deep sequencing to characterize the patients'  microbiomes and search for pathogens that may potentially trigger an immune response. They also identified the immune cells and cytokines in the specimens. Almost all the recovered fungal and bacterial species we