Raphael Enaud (Bordeaux University Hospital), Microbiota and cystic fibrosis: a new era?

Raphael Enaud (MD-PhD student) & Laurence Delhaes (MD-PhD)

Abstract

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common serious genetic disease in Caucasian population. Patient management has improved considerably in recent years. Pulmonary transplantation and protein therapeutics have changed the face of the disease. Before the first lung transplant, the CF disease prognosis was essentially conditioned by the respiratory function deterioration. Since then, the life expectancy of patients has increased and a new reality is emerging: cystic fibrosis is a systemic disease and affects other organs, notably the intestine, which is the site of chronic inflammation. New physiopathological, diagnostic and therapeutic issues emerge.

The research in cystic fibrosis domain did not escape the advent of microbiota analysis using metagenomics, and give us the opportunity to share with you current knowledges on CF microbiota. How does it constitute a new era in CF management? In which way can it explain the intestinal inflammation? Does the gut-lung axis represent a major pathway? Can gut microbiota be used as diagnostic or therapeutic tools?