About this Research Topic
The lung is highly vulnerable to injury and infection because of its constant exposure to airborne particles and microbes. Consequently, acute and chronic respiratory conditions are leading causes of illness and death, affecting more than a billion children and adults worldwide.
Acute respiratory diseases can be caused by various types of pathogens. Among those are influenza viruses, which can affect up to 20% of the global population each year, and coronaviruses (CoVs), including those causing the common cold and COVID-19. Virus-induced lung pathology can result in bronchiolitis (the most common cause of admission to hospital in the first year of life) or pneumonia (more than 3 million cases each year in Europe).
Chronic respiratory diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lower respiratory tract infection rank in the top 5 of the most common causes of death, costing the lives of 9 million children under the age of five and 4 million adults in 2018.
Exposure to particles and microbes imposes a stress on lung cells, whether they are resident in the organ (epithelium, immune subsets), or acutely recruited into it (other immune subsets). The response of resident and recruited lung cells to stress and resulting outcome (health or disease) depends on their developmental poise and on dynamic adaptations which relate to epigenetic programming, notably.
This Research Topic aims to shed light on our current understanding of the development of the lung epithelial and immune cells, on mechanisms underlying the interplay between lung immune cells and microbes, and on therapeutic avenues for intractable lung disease.
We welcome the submission of Original Research articles, Reviews, and Mini-Reviews that cover mainly the following topics:
1) Lung-resident cells: Developmental ontogeny and plasticity of airway epithelium (nose/sinuses, tracheobronchial, bronchiolar, and alveolar), lung macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs), mast cells, and lymphocytes.
2) Lung-recruited cells: Epigenetic, transcriptional, and functional regulation of lung monocytes, DCs, and granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils).
3) Lifelong adaptation: Immaturity/senescence of lung immunity underlying age and/or sex differences in homeostasis and disease.
4) Innovative in vitro models: The use of ALI, lung-on-a-chip, organoids in testing novel therapeutic approaches to lung immunopathology.
Acute respiratory diseases can be caused by various types of pathogens. Among those are influenza viruses, which can affect up to 20% of the global population each year, and coronaviruses (CoVs), including those causing the common cold and COVID-19. Virus-induced lung pathology can result in bronchiolitis (the most common cause of admission to hospital in the first year of life) or pneumonia (more than 3 million cases each year in Europe).
Chronic respiratory diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lower respiratory tract infection rank in the top 5 of the most common causes of death, costing the lives of 9 million children under the age of five and 4 million adults in 2018.
Exposure to particles and microbes imposes a stress on lung cells, whether they are resident in the organ (epithelium, immune subsets), or acutely recruited into it (other immune subsets). The response of resident and recruited lung cells to stress and resulting outcome (health or disease) depends on their developmental poise and on dynamic adaptations which relate to epigenetic programming, notably.
This Research Topic aims to shed light on our current understanding of the development of the lung epithelial and immune cells, on mechanisms underlying the interplay between lung immune cells and microbes, and on therapeutic avenues for intractable lung disease.
We welcome the submission of Original Research articles, Reviews, and Mini-Reviews that cover mainly the following topics:
1) Lung-resident cells: Developmental ontogeny and plasticity of airway epithelium (nose/sinuses, tracheobronchial, bronchiolar, and alveolar), lung macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs), mast cells, and lymphocytes.
2) Lung-recruited cells: Epigenetic, transcriptional, and functional regulation of lung monocytes, DCs, and granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils).
3) Lifelong adaptation: Immaturity/senescence of lung immunity underlying age and/or sex differences in homeostasis and disease.
4) Innovative in vitro models: The use of ALI, lung-on-a-chip, organoids in testing novel therapeutic approaches to lung immunopathology.
Keywords: lung development, epigenetics, senescence, aging, novel therapeutics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
