Speaker Institution: UMD Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Title: Microstructural Alterations of Mucus in Obstructive Lung Diseases
Speaker Institution: UMD Fischell Department of Bioengineering Notes: http://www.marylandbiophysics.umd.edu/seminars/spring2018.php Abstract: There is a strong clinical need for sensitive biomarkers of disease severity in obstructive lung diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cystic fibrosis (CF). The role of airway mucus in the progression of these diseases has yet to be clearly determined and as a result, reliable mucus biomarkers have not been established. Prior assessments of mucus collected from individuals afflicted with these diseases have been limited to determining bulk macroscopic properties. However, these measurements are unable to probe mucus properties on microscopic length scales relevant to key players in the progression of obstructive lung diseases such as viruses, bacteria, neutrophils, and eosinophils.
In this work, we employed a nanoparticle-based biophysical measurement technique capable of detecting the microstructural properties of mucus and suggest its role in the progression of obstructive lung diseases. Specifically, we use the transport behavior of muco-inert nanoparticle probes within CF mucus produced by a cough, known as sputum, as an indication of pore sizes within the sputum mesh network. We mechanistically demonstrate how changes in the biomolecular properties of sputum lead to the alteration of microstructure. Importantly, we found that a reduction in pore sizes within sputum correlates with impairment of lung function in individuals with CF. Our results give new insights into the CF lung airway microenvironment and suggest mucus/sputum microstructure may serve as a non-invasive biomarker for disease severity and outcome measure for new therapies in CF and other related obstructive lung diseases.