We may be deep in the season of runny noses, but for some, allergies make it a year-round struggle. In fact, an estimated 25 to 40 per cent of people worldwide suffer from allergic rhinitis, the condition that causes inflamed nasal mucous membranes.
The cause of this perpetual sniffling? Scientists may now have an answer: people with allergies have different fungi in their noses.
While the idea of having any fungi in our noses is immediately repelling, we all have them (yes, even you). They make up our nasal mycobiome – the diverse community of fungal microorganisms that can be found throughout our nostrils and sinuses.
They are a small part of our larger microbiome, the colourful zoo of microscopic organisms that play essential roles in our bodies, like boosting our immune systems and fighting off harmful pathogens.
To study the nasal mycobiome, scientists took nasal swabs from 214 patients with allergies and 125 healthy participants.
These swabs revealed between 7 to 10 of the most common types of nose fungi were noticeably different between the two groups – and that participants with respiratory diseases had richer, more diverse mycobiomes.
“This suggests that the nasal cavity is a major reservoir for fungi that could be involved in allergic rhinitis,” said Dr Luís Delgado of the University of Porto, Portugal, one of the authors of the new study published in Frontiers in Microbiology.
The research also found that certain chemical processes, called metabolic pathways, were more common in the fungal communities of participants with allergic rhinitis.
If further studies confirm this link, these processes could be used to, ahem, sniff out future allergy treatments.
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