A team of international scientists led by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has discovered that Neisseria — a genus of bacteria that lives in the human body — is not as harmless as previously thought, and can cause infections in patients with bronchiectasis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
In a landmark study, published today in Cell Host & Microbe, the team showed conclusive evidence that Neisseria species can cause disease in the lung and are linked to worsening bronchiectasis (a type of lung disease) in patients.
Bronchiectasis is a long-term condition where the airways of the lungs become abnormally enlarged for unknown reasons in up to 50 per cent of Singaporean patients. The disease is up to four times more prevalent among Asians as compared to their Western counterparts and can also occur following recovery from tuberculosis. In Singapore, research at Tan Tock Seng Hospital described 420 incident hospitalised bronchiectasis patients in 2017. The incidence rate is 10.6 per 100,000 and increases strongly with age.
Despite its prevalence among older people, no obvious cause is found in most cases of bronchiectasis and the condition tends to arise spontaneously and without warning.
To unravel the puzzle of why bronchiectasis worsens at a significantly greater rate among older Asian patients, the international team — spanning researchers and hospitals in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Australia, and the UK (see Annex) — led by LKCMedicine Associate Professor Sanjay Chotirmall, Provost’s Chair in Molecular Medicine, matched disease and infection data from 225 patients with bronchiectasis of Asian (Singapore and Malaysia) origin to those from bronchiectasis patients in Europe.
Neisseria: not so harmless after all
While Neisseria species are well known to cause meningitis and gonorrhoea, they are not known to infect lungs. Through detailed identification and meticulous characterisation, the research team found that Neisseria dominated the microbiome of Asian patients with worsening bronchiectasis.
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