ReviewThorax2020
Sputum microbiome profiling in COPD: beyond singular pathogen detection.
Review in Thorax, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04961060 (Drivers of Eosinophilic COPD Exacerbations), which is not on this map. Cited by 35 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Drivers of Eosinophilic COPD Exacerbations
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- No difference in microbial diversity between bronchoalveolar lavage and tracheal sampling: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Pooled it
- Multi-omic meta-analysis identifies functional signatures of airway microbiome in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.The ISME journal · 2020Pooled it
- Mitochondria Meet the Lung Microbiome: A Bidirectional Dialogue in Inflammation and Respiratory Diseases.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Dynamic balance of the lung microbiome in health and respiratory diseases.Chinese medical journal · 2026Review
- Gut microbiota dysbiosis and the gut-lung axis in COPD: mechanisms, clinical relevance, and microbiota-targeted interventions.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- May nutrients and dietary supplements influence the gut-lung microbiota axis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and exacerbations?Archives of medical science : AMS · 2026Article
- Association between exacerbation history and airway bacterial community assessed by extended bacterial culture and sequencing approaches in stable COPD.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Airway microbiota and immunity associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease severity.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Immune cell regulatory networks in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: mechanistic analysis from innate to adaptive immunity.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Exploring the Role of Gut-Lung Interactions in COPD Pathogenesis: A Comprehensive Review on Microbiota Characteristics and Inflammation Modulation.Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (Miami, Fla.) · 2024Article
- Application of Microbiome-Based Therapies in Chronic Respiratory Diseases.Journal of microbiology (Seoul, Korea) · 2024Review
- Sputum microbiota and inflammatory subtypes in asthma, COPD, and its overlap.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2024Article
- The use of antibiotics in the early stage of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients without obvious signs of infection: a multicenter, randomized, parallel-controlled study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- From bench to bedside: an interdisciplinary journey through the gut-lung axis with insights into lung cancer and immunotherapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Phenotypes, Etiotypes, and Endotypes of Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2023Review
- A Retrospective Assessment of Sputum Samples and Antimicrobial Resistance in COVID-19 Patients.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Applying Next-Generation Sequencing and Multi-Omics in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Characterization of the Microbiome and Host's Metabolites of the Lower Respiratory Tract During Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia Identifies Potential Novel Markers.Infection and drug resistance · 2023Article
- Profiling of Microbial Landscape in Lung of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients Using RNA Sequencing.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2023Article
- Exome and Sputum Microbiota as Predictive Markers of Frequent Exacerbations in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.Biomolecules · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Culture-independent microbial sequencing techniques have revealed that the respiratory tract harbours a complex microbiome not detectable by conventional culturing methods. The contribution of the microbiome to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathobiology and the potential for microbiome-based clinical biomarkers in COPD are still in the early phases of investigation. Sputum is an easily obtainable sample and has provided a wealth of information on COPD pathobiology, and thus has been a preferred sample type for microbiome studies. Although the sputum microbiome likely reflects the respiratory microbiome only in part, there is increasing evidence that microbial community structure and diversity are associated with disease severity and clinical outcomes, both in stable COPD and during the exacerbations. Current evidence has been limited to mainly cross-sectional studies using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, attempting to answer the question 'who is there?' Longitudinal studies using standardised protocols are needed to answer outstanding questions including differences between sputum sampling techniques. Further, with advancing technologies, microbiome studies are shifting beyond the examination of the 16S rRNA gene, to include whole metagenome and metatranscriptome sequencing, as well as metabolome characterisation. Despite being technically more challenging, whole-genome profiling and metabolomics can address the questions 'what can they do?' and 'what are they doing?' This review provides an overview of the basic principles of high-throughput microbiome sequencing techniques, current literature on sputum microbiome profiling in COPD, and a discussion of the associated limitations and future perspectives.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.