None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects approximately 7.5% of the Australian population over 40 years of age. Many people with COPD suffer periodic exacerbations that can make them feel much worse. We have effective treatments for managing the symptoms of COPD, but they do not cure the disease. The “microbiome” is the term given to all the microorganisms, such as bacteria, that live on and in our body. There are at least 10 times as many bacterial cells than human cells in the gut alone. All these microbes live in harmony with our body and we benefit from them being there; for example, they can produce vitamins that we need and can ward off pathogenic microbes that might do us harm. There are many ways in which the “health” of our microbiome can be affected. We have found that the number and species of bacteria in the microbiome of mice with COPD is different to that in mice without COPD. The purpose of this study is to determine if the same is true in people. The bacteria that are different might serve either protective or negative roles in terms of health.
Interventions
Specimen collection / observational only (no intervention). Patients will be asked to undergo spirometry and will have blood and feces collected. Spirometry and blood collection will occur at assessment and the procedures should last no longer than 30 minutes. Feces will be collected by the participant at his/her own home and stored in their freezer until it can be brought to the clinic.
Sponsors
Peter Wark
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
40 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Adults > age 40 years with COPD GOLD grade 2 and above, confirmed by incompletely reversible airflow obstruction (post bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) <80% predicted and forced expiratory ratio (FER) <0.7 or physician confirmed COPD in patients with a reduced forced vital capacity (FVC)), and stable disease with no recent respiratory infection, acute exacerbation, or change in maintenance therapy in the previous 4 weeks. Participants will be classified according to their GOLD quadrant (A, B, C, D). Healthy controls subjects will be adults >40 years recruited from the Hunter Medical Research Institute volunteer register. Participants will have no history of cardiac or respiratory disease and have normal lung function measured by spirometry. In addition they will not have experienced a respiratory tract infection in the previous four weeks, nor used antibiotics.
Exclusion criteria
Participants will be excluded if they have received treatment with an antibiotic or oral prednisone in the last 4 weeks. This includes the regular use of antibiotics in subjects with COPD. In addition subjects with a previous history of gastrointestinal disease (GI disease), will be excluded. Subjects will also be excluded if they have a history of significant abdominal pain, bloating or diarrhoea in the previous 4 weeks. The study does not exclude current or ex-smokers.
Outcome results
None listed