Abstract
Excessive inflammation by phagocytes during Aspergillus fumigatus infection is thought to promote lung function decline in CF patients. CFTR modulators have been shown to reduce A. fumigatus colonization in vivo, however, their antifungal and anti-inflammatory mechanisms are unclear. Other treatments including azithromycin and acebilustat may dampen Aspergillus-induced inflammation due to their immunomodulatory properties. Therefore, we set out in this study to determine the effects of current CF therapies on ROS production and fungal killing, either direct or indirect by enhancing antifungal immune mechanisms in peripheral blood immune cells from CF patients upon A. fumigatus infection. Isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) from CF patients and healthy volunteers were challenged with A. fumigatus following pre-treatment with CFTR modulators, azithromycin or acebilustat. Ivacaftor/lumacaftor treated CF and control subject PMNs resulted in a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in Aspergillus-induced ROS. For CF PBMC, Aspergillus-induced ROS was significantly reduced when pre-treated with ivacaftor alone (p < 0.01) or in combination with lumacaftor (p < 0.01), with a comparable significant reduction in control subject PBMC (p < 0.05). Azithromycin and acebilustat had no effect on ROS production by CF or control subject phagocytes. None of the treatments showed an indirect or direct antifungal activity. In summary, CFTR modulators have potential for additional immunomodulatory benefits to prevent or treat Aspergillus-induced inflammation in CF. The comparable effects of CFTR modulators observed in phagocytes from control subjects questions their exact mechanism of action.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 372 |
| Pages (from-to) | 372 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology |
| Volume | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Jul 2020 |
Bibliographical note
FUNDING:AC and AW were supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (grant 097377) and the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (grant MR/N006364/2) at the University of Exeter. AC and AW were also supported by the Chloe Fund. DA-J was supported by the CF Trust Strategic Research Centre TrIFIC (SRC015).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
We would like to thank the CF patients for their participation and a special thanks goes to the CF nurses Karen Griffiths and Sandra Steele (Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen, UK) for their invaluable contribution to this study.
Keywords
- Aspergillus fumigatus
- cystic fibrosis
- phagocytes
- inflammation
- CFTR modulators
- azithromycin
- acebilustat
- INFECTIONS
- NEUTROPHIL
- IVACAFTOR
- COLONIZATION
- AZITHROMYCIN
- TRANSMEMBRANE CONDUCTANCE REGULATOR
- ACEBILUSTAT
- INFLAMMATION
- ALLERGIC BRONCHOPULMONARY ASPERGILLOSIS
- PHASE-I
Access to Document
- Currie_et_al_FCIM_CFTrModulatorsDampen_VoR
Copyright © 2020 Currie, Main, Wilson, Armstrong-James and Warris. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/