Are you allergic to Sniffly? Your Funky Nose Fungi could be to blame

Come spring, many of us are sniffling from seasonal allergies. Scientists have recently identified some potentially fundamental differences between people with runny nose allergies and those without, and it has to do with nasal fungi.

An international team of researchers says that people with allergic sniffles and asthma have different fungal communities in their noses than individuals without symptoms. Its results, detailed in a December 17 to study published in the newspaper Frontiers in MicrobiologyIt could have important applications for future allergy and asthma treatments.

“We showed that allergic rhinitis samples show a significantly higher fungal diversity and a different fungal community structure compared to those of healthy controls,” said Luís Delgado of the University of Porto, who participated in the study, in a study. Frontiers in Microbiology declaration. Allergic rhinitis is the medical term for allergy symptoms, such as a blocked or runny nose, sneezing, itching and inflamed nasal membranes.

“This may suggest that allergic rhinitis increases the diversity and changes the composition of the upper airway microbiome,” added Delgado. Allergic rhinitis is often linked to asthma, which also involves inflammation and blocked airways. Researchers suggest that allergic rhinitis and asthma may be two aspects of the same underlying condition.

The team, including researchers from George Washington University, took nasal swabs from 215 patients from an immunology and asthma clinic in Porto, Portugal, in addition to 125 healthy individuals. Of the patients from the clinic, 155 had allergic rhinitis and asthma, 47 had only allergic rhinitis and 12 had only asthma.

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

“This confirms at the fungal level what is already known for bacteria, 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 discovered in all samples, Delgado and his colleagues found that clinical patients had richer and more diverse fungal communities in the nose than healthy individuals. In addition, the team noted evidence suggesting that the fungi of patients with both respiratory diseases have an impact on the immune environment of the nose.

Perhaps most importantly, however, they also found a surplus of ribonucleotide 5-aminoimidazole – a chemical compound associated with energy metabolism and DNA synthesis – in the nose of patients with both respiratory diseases. The scientists suggest that, with further research, this potential association could direct future therapeutics to target AIR to treat or diagnose sniffly allergies and asthma.

The team plans to do follow-up studies, giving hope to the hundreds of millions of people who tell their friends that it’s real. only allergies every time they reach a tissue.