By Robert Preidt
HealthDay reporter
FRIDAY, April 9, 2021 (HealthDay News) – There is more than one type of fungus in lung tissue, but people can breathe easily knowing these types are mostly harmless, scientists say.
It’s normal for people to have fungus in their lungs and using drugs like inhaled steroids won’t harm them, according to a team of researchers.
According to a team led by Einar Marius Hjellestad Martinsen, a PhD student at the University of Bergen in Norway, it has long been believed that healthy lungs are sterile and that only diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) allow microorganisms to enter and enter them to survive .
It has now been shown that several microorganisms also live in the lungs of healthy people.
In this study, Norwegian researchers analyzed lung and mouth samples from nearly 200 people with and without COPD.
“Both healthy and diseased lungs had a different fungal composition than the mouth, suggesting that lungs have a unique fungal environment,” Hjellestad Martinsen said in a university press release.
continuation
Candida was the dominant fungus in the lungs. The researchers found no differences in fungal communities between people with healthy lungs and people with COPD, and no differences between COPD patients who used inhaled steroids and those who did not.
According to the researchers, it is noteworthy that inhaled steroids do not appear to affect the fungal composition in the lungs.
They also said that the prevalence and severity of fungal infections have increased in recent years, and that their finding that candida is common in healthy lungs might be of particular concern.
Candida is part of the normal flora on several mucous membranes and can cause diseases such as thrush in the mouth or vagina.
“It would be of great interest to investigate further whether pulmonary fungal infections are caused by fungi that are already present in the lungs,” said Hjellestad Martinsen.
“If so, focus should be placed on these fungi to uncover what triggers are responsible for going from being ‘friendly residents’ of our lungs to disease-causing invaders,” he added.
continuation
The results were published on April 7th in the journal PLOS ONE.
More information
The US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about COPD.
SOURCE: University of Bergen, press release, April 7, 2021
Comments are closed.