Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 21, 2026
Noninvasive Sampling of Mucosal Lining Fluid for the Quantification of In Vivo Upper Airway Immune-mediator Levels
Published on: August 7, 2017
Advancing our understanding of infant bronchiolitis through phenotyping and endotyping: clinical and molecular
Kohei Hasegawa1, Orianne Dumas2, Tina V Hartert3
1a Department of Emergency Medicine , Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA.
Insights
Bronchiolitis, a global health issue, shows diverse patient groups (phenotypes) and underlying causes (endotypes). Research aims to identify these subtypes for personalized treatment strategies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Infectious Diseases
- Genomics
Background:
- Bronchiolitis is a significant global public health concern.
- Current treatment relies solely on supportive care due to a lack of effective strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the heterogeneity of bronchiolitis, moving beyond a single disease concept.
- To identify distinct clinical phenotypes and molecular endotypes of bronchiolitis.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing unbiased statistical approaches to derive phenotypes from multidimensional clinical data.
- Employing molecular and systems biology to link pathobiology with clinical phenotypes, identifying endotypes.
- Recommending large cohort studies with comprehensive clinical and multi-omics data profiling.
Main Results:
- Emerging evidence suggests bronchiolitis is not a single entity but comprises multiple phenotypes.
- Pathobiological heterogeneity underlies these distinct clinical presentations.
- Linking molecular data to phenotypes is crucial for endotype identification.
Conclusions:
- Bronchiolitis exhibits significant heterogeneity at both clinical and pathobiological levels.
- Identifying phenotypes and endotypes is key to understanding the disease.
- Future research should focus on multi-omics profiling for personalized bronchiolitis treatment.
Introduction:
Bronchiolitis is a major public health problem worldwide. However, no effective treatment strategies are available, other than supportive care.
Areas Covered:
Although bronchiolitis has been considered a single disease diagnosed based on clinical characteristics, emerging evidence supports both clinical and pathobiological heterogeneity. The characterization of this heterogeneity supports the concept that bronchiolitis consists of multiple phenotypes or consistent grouping of characteristics. Expert commentary: Using unbiased statistical approaches, multidimentional clinical characteristics will derive bronchiolitis phenotypes. Furthermore, molecular and systems biology approaches will, by linking pathobiology to phenotype, identify endotypes. Large cohort studies of bronchiolitis with comprehensive clinical characterization and system-wide profiling of the '-omics' data (e.g., host genome, transcriptome, epigenome, viral genome, microbiome, metabolome) should enhance our ability to molecularly understand these phenotypes and lead to more targeted and personalized approaches to bronchiolitis treatment.
Related Concept Videos
01:29Modern Molecular Taxonomy
01:20COPD: Pathogenesis and Clinical Features
The primary cause for the onset of COPD is cigarette smoking and exposure to air pollution. These hazardous factors initiate a chain reaction within the lungs, resulting in chronic inflammation, damage to the airways, and a...
01:26Asthma-II: Pathophysiology and Classification
Additionally, environmental and genetic factors play crucial roles in determining an individual's susceptibility to asthma and the severity of their condition.
Critical processes in asthma pathophysiology include:
01:28Methods of Classification and Identification