Glucose homeostasis at the human lung lumen contributes to maintain a nutrient-depleted environment to limit the growth of pathogens. In healthy airways, glucose concentrations are maintained 3-20 times lower in the airways surface liquid (ASL) than in plasma. However, the ASL glucose concentration is elevated in sputum samples of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which facilitates the proliferation of bacteria able to use glucose as carbon source. COPD is characterized by abnormal inflammatory responses and impaired airway immunity, which provides an opportunistic platform for nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) infection. This results in a vicious-circle where large inflammation due to multiple interactions between airway immune cells and NTHi results in worsening of the disease clinical status. NTHi glucose metabolism is a respiration-assisted fermentation. We hypothesised that such specialized glucose catabolism may be a bacterial pathoadaptative trait with a pivotal role in airway infection

Trabajo presentado en las XII Jornadas de Formación del Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), celebradas en Madrid (España), el 27 de septiembre de 2019