Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Environmental Health Research Cluster (EHRc), Environmental Healthcare Section, Institute of Medical Science Technology, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Dec 20;853:158639. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158639. Epub 2022 Sep 9.
Fungi exposure has been significantly linked to respiratory illness. However, numerous fungi taxa that are potentially allergenic still undocumented and leave a barrier to establishing a clear connection between exposure and health risks. This study aimed to evaluate the association of fungi composition in settled dust with fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) levels among school children with doctor-diagnosed asthma. A cross-sectional study was undertaken among secondary school students in eight schools in the urban area of Hulu Langat, Selangor, Malaysia. A total of 470 school children (aged 14 years old) were randomly selected and their FeNO levels were measured and allergic skin prick tests were conducted. The settled dust samples were collected and analysed by using metagenomic technique to determine the fungi composition. The general linear regression with complex sampling was employed to determine the interrelationship. In total, 2645 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were characterised from the sequencing process which belongs to Ascomycota (60.7 %), Basidiomycota (36.4 %), Glomeromycota (2.9 %) and Chytridiomycota (0.04 %). The top five mostly abundance in all dust samples were Aspergillus clavatus (27.2 %), followed by Hyphoderma multicystidium (12.2 %), Verrucoconiothyrium prosopidis (9.4 %), Ganoderma tuberculosum (9.2 %), and Heterochaete shearii (7.2 %). The regression results indicated that A. clavatus, Brycekendrickomyces acaciae, Candida parapsilosis, Hazslinszkyomyces aloes, H. multicystidium, H. shearii, Starmerella meliponinorum, V. prosopidis were associated in increased of FeNO levels among the asthmatic group at 0.992 ppb (95 % CI = 0.34-1.68), 2.887 ppb (95 % CI = 2.09-3.76), 0.809 ppb (95 % CI = 0.14-1.49), 0.647 ppb (95 % CI = 0.36-0.94), 1.442 ppb (95 % CI = 0.29-2.61), 1.757 ppb (95 % CI = 0.59-2.87), 1.092 ppb (95 % CI = 0.43-1.75) and 1.088 ppb (95 % CI = 0.51-1.62), respectively. To our knowledge, this is a new finding. The findings pointed out that metagenomics profiling of fungi could enhance our understanding of a complex interrelation between rare and unculturable fungi with airway inflammation.
真菌暴露与呼吸道疾病显著相关。然而，许多潜在的过敏原真菌尚未被记录在案，这阻碍了我们建立暴露与健康风险之间的明确联系。本研究旨在评估学校中尘螨真菌组成与呼出气一氧化氮分数（FeNO）之间的关联在有医生诊断哮喘的学生中。在马来西亚雪兰莪州乌鲁冷岳地区的 8 所学校的中学生中进行了一项横断面研究。共随机选择了 470 名（14 岁）学生，测量他们的 FeNO 水平并进行过敏皮肤点刺试验。收集沉降灰尘样本并使用宏基因组技术进行分析，以确定真菌组成。采用复杂抽样的一般线性回归来确定相互关系。在测序过程中共鉴定出 2645 个真菌分类单元（OTU），属于子囊菌门（60.7%）、担子菌门（36.4%）、球囊菌门（2.9%）和壶菌门（0.04%）。所有灰尘样本中数量最多的前五种真菌是棒曲霉（27.2%），其次是 Hyphoderma multicystidium（12.2%）、Verrucoconiothyrium prosopidis（9.4%）、Ganoderma tuberculosum（9.2%）和 Heterochaete shearii（7.2%）。回归结果表明，在哮喘组中，A. clavatus、Brycekendrickomyces acaciae、Candida parapsilosis、Hazslinszkyomyces aloes、H. multicystidium、H. shearii、Starmerella meliponinorum、V. prosopidis 与 FeNO 水平升高相关，在 0.992 ppb（95%CI=0.34-1.68）、2.887 ppb（95%CI=2.09-3.76）、0.809 ppb（95%CI=0.14-1.49）、0.647 ppb（95%CI=0.36-0.94）、1.442 ppb（95%CI=0.29-2.61）、1.757 ppb（95%CI=0.59-2.87）、1.092 ppb（95%CI=0.43-1.75）和 1.088 ppb（95%CI=0.51-1.62），分别。据我们所知，这是一个新发现。研究结果表明，真菌宏基因组分析可以提高我们对稀有和不可培养真菌与气道炎症之间复杂关系的理解。
