{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T05:04:06Z","timestamp":1784610246505,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784592000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) exacerbate chronic airway diseases, yet phenotype-specific microbial signatures are poorly defined. We applied broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) genomic sequencing to identify biomarkers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Between December 2023 and February 2025, 1\u2013146 adults with suspected LRTI enrolled from the First Hospital of Jilin University underwent BALF next-generation sequencing. Patients were stratified by lung function, with the impaired pulmonary function group further divided into asthma, COPD-mild-moderate, and COPD-severe subgroups. Disease-specific key biomarkers were identified using machine learning algorithms and analyzed for co-occurrence.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Impaired pulmonary function was not only associated with pathogenic microorganisms and its higher microbial burden, but also associated with a distinct community structure. Random forest models revealed disease-specific biomarkers, with\n                      <jats:italic>Prevotella intermedia<\/jats:italic>\n                      ,\n                      <jats:italic>Finegoldia magna<\/jats:italic>\n                      , and Human parvovirus enriched in asthma,\n                      <jats:italic>Veillonella parvula<\/jats:italic>\n                      , Human respiratory syncytial virus, and\n                      <jats:italic>Haemophilus influenzae<\/jats:italic>\n                      enriched in COPD-mild-moderate, and Human respiratory syncytial virus, Human coronavirus, and Human parainfluenza virus enriched in COPD-severe. Co-occurrence network identified hubs linking asthma-centric (\n                      <jats:italic>Haemophilus parainfluenzae<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Schaalia odontolytica<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) and COPD-centric (\n                      <jats:italic>Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/jats:italic>\n                      ,\n                      <jats:italic>Veillonella parvula<\/jats:italic>\n                      , and\n                      <jats:italic>Streptococcus constellatus<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) clusters, suggesting potential cross-phenotype microbial crosstalk.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Genomic sequencing profiling delineates distinct yet overlapping airway microbiota across separate pulmonary dysfunctional diseases - asthma and COPD. Compact biomarker panels classify each condition accurately and reveal shared microbial hubs that may drive chronic inflammation and exacerbations, supporting microbiome-guided precision diagnostics and therapy.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2026.1840378","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T04:20:03Z","timestamp":1784607603000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Molecular insights into lower respiratory tract microbiota reveal disease-specific biomarkers and shared microbial networks in asthma and COPD"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Yuanping","family":"Huang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University","place":["Changchun, Jilin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanfei","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, The First Hospital of Jilin University","place":["Changchun, Jilin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xue","family":"Xin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University","place":["Changchun, Jilin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shan","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University","place":["Changchun, Jilin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"663","DOI":"10.1038\/s41564-018-0349-6","article-title":"Analytical and clinical validation of a microbial cell-free DNA sequencing test for infectious disease","volume":"4","author":"Blauwkamp","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nat. 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