WE ARE HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THE RISING STARS WINNERS!
Zina Alfahl
Rising Star Winner (Bronchiectasis)
School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom)
Title:
Sputum microbiome and clinical outcome measures in bronchiectasis: Data from the BRONCH UK Study
Summary:
Patients with bronchiectasis suffer from recurrent pulmonary exacerbations which lead to progressive loss of lung function, reduced quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality. Bacterial infections are the major cause of exacerbations due to the presence of one or more pathogens; therefore, the characterisation of the airway microbiome may improve our understanding of the natural history of bronchiectasis. In this study, we investigated the changes in bacterial community composition in sputum during clinical stability and following antibiotic treatment for pulmonary exacerbation. In addition, we investigated the relationship between main microbiome ecological indices and clinical outcome measures. Results showed that bacterial community composition was stable during periods of clinical stability and did not change following antibiotic treatment of a pulmonary exacerbation. Furthermore, no association was observed between changes in the main ecological indices and clinical outcome measures.
Jelmer Raaijmakers
Rising Star Winner (NTM -PD)
Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
Title:
Rifampicin has no clear role in the standard regimen for M. avium complex lung disease – A hollow-fibre study with genome-wide transcriptional analysis.
Summary:
Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) bacteria are the most frequent causative agents of nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) worldwide. Rifampicin is currently recommended for the treatment of MAC-PD alongside azithromycin and ethambutol. Rifampicin has poor in vitro activity against MAC, but is thought to prevent the emergence of macrolide resistance. We evaluated the contribution of rifampicin within the standard therapy of MAC-PD in an intracellular hollow-fibre model. Rifampicin did not add to the antimycobacterial effect to a regimen of azithromycin and ethambutol and it did not add to suppression of the emergence of macrolide resistance. In addition, to study the differences in adaptation to each treatment regimen, we performed RNA sequencing of the bacterial population over time. RNA sequencing showed that the addition of rifampicin does not greatly alter gene transcription in comparison to the 2-drug regimen. We believe that the similar transcriptomic profile in the two arms is driven by the presence of both azithromycin and host cells, both strongly influencing transcription and likely dominating the stress response with little-to-no additional effect of rifampicin. The additive effect of rifampicin in the treatment regimen is thus questionable, particularly in nodular-bronchiectatic MAC-PD.
