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. 2023 Dec 15;239(Pt 1):117296.
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117296. Epub 2023 Oct 6.

Fungal diversity in homes and asthma morbidity among school-age children in New York City

Samuel J Cochran  1 , Luis Acosta  2 , Adnan Divjan  2 , Angela R Lemons  3 , Andrew G Rundle  4 , Rachel L Miller  5 , Edward Sobek  6 , Brett J Green  3 , Matthew S Perzanowski  7 , Karen C Dannemiller  8
Affiliations

Fungal diversity in homes and asthma morbidity among school-age children in New York City

Samuel J Cochran et al. Environ Res. .

Abstract

Background: Asthma development has been inversely associated with exposure to fungal diversity. However, the influence of fungi on measures of asthma morbidity is not well understood.

Objectives: This study aimed to test the hypothesis that fungal diversity is inversely associated with neighborhood asthma prevalence and identify specific fungal species associated with asthma morbidity.

Methods: Children aged 7-8 years (n = 347) living in higher (11-18%) and lower (3-9%) asthma prevalence neighborhoods were recruited within an asthma case-control study. Fungal communities were analyzed from floor dust using high-throughput DNA sequencing. A subset of asthmatic children (n = 140) was followed to age 10-11 to determine asthma persistence.

Results: Neighborhood asthma prevalence was inversely associated with fungal species richness (P = 0.010) and Shannon diversity (P = 0.059). Associations between neighborhood asthma prevalence and diversity indices were driven by differences in building type and presence of bedroom carpet. Among children with asthma at age 7-8 years, Shannon fungal diversity was inversely associated with frequent asthma symptoms at that age (OR 0.57, P = 0.025) and with asthma persistence to age 10-11 (OR 0.48, P = 0.043). Analyses of individual fungal species did not show significant associations with asthma outcomes when adjusted for false discovery rates.

Discussion: Lower fungal diversity was associated with asthma symptoms in this urban setting. Individual fungal species associated with asthma morbidity were not detected. Further research is warranted into building type, carpeting, and other environmental characteristics which influence fungal exposures in homes.

Keywords: Asthma; Built-environment; DNA; Fungi; House-dust; Mycobiome.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Geographic maps and logistic regression of neighborhood asthma prevalence with fungal diversity. A) Map of fungal diversity; B) Map of fungal richness; C) correlation between neighborhood asthma prevalence and fungal diversity [r= −0.11, P=0.059]; and D) fungal richness [r= −0.15, P=0.010]. Correlations calculated with Spearman rank. A visual summary of percent neighborhood asthma prevalence has been previously published (Olmedo et al., 2011).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Fungal diversity and indoor environmental conditions. A) Building type and Shannon fungal diversity, B) presence of carpet and Shannon fungal diversity; C) Season and Shannon fungal diversity; D) Building type and fungal richness (observed OTUs); E) presence of carpet and fungal richness; F) Season and fungal richness (* P=0.012; ** P =0.002; *** P<0.001).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Unadjusted odds of asthma outcomes among children with asthma at baseline. Logistic regression representing associations between fungal richness (observed OTUs) or Shannon fungal diversity with odds of asthma case designation, odds of frequent symptoms, and odds of persistent symptoms. Gray shading represents 95% confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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