[1057] Interstitial and Immunocompromised diseases
The objective of the Pneumology research group is to refocus clinical and translational research around 2 priority themes:
- Interstitial and immunocompromised lung diseases
- Pulmonary vascular diseases
The aim of our group is to put our different areas of expertise to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from these diseases.
Clinical research
Pulmonary complications in immunocompromised patients, particularly hematopoietic stem cell allograft and lung transplant recipients
Pulmonary complications following lung transplantation and allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation have many similarities, both in terms of infectious and non-infectious complications (lung graft dysfunction or pulmonary graft-versus-host disease in haematopoietic stem cell allograft patients). The comparison of these 2 situations, which is possible in Geneva because these 2 types of transplant patients are treated there, should enable us to better understand and treat these complications. Work in this field is made possible by international collaborations.
Pulmonary vascular diseases
In addition to our participation in the prospective Swiss registry of chronic thrombo-embolic pulmonary hypertension, which will enable us to obtain new data on the efficacy of pulmonary artery angioplasty management of chronic thrombo-embolic pulmonary hypertension, we are developing research projects exploring the cardiorespiratory response to exercise, with particular emphasis on pulmonary vascular pathologies.
Translational research
We are developing a research project in collaboration with Pre Tapparel's laboratory at the UNIGE to better understand the mechanisms leading to lung graft dysfunction and lung graft-versus-host disease following community-acquired respiratory viral infection in lung transplant and hematopoietic stem cell allograft patients respectively. Using bronchial mucosal biopsies obtained during bronchoscopy in transplant patients, we are able to reconstitute the patients' epithelium in the laboratory and analyse their response to viral infection by comparing it with controls. The hypothesis is that the presence of abnormalities in the bronchial epithelium would prevent ad integrum reconstitution of the epithelium after viral infection, and lead to perennial impairment of lung function. We were able to confirm that the epithelial characteristics of transplant patients differed from those of control subjects. This project, supported by the HUG's private foundation, began in 2022 and is due to continue for several years. We plan to conduct a parallel clinical study to confirm the results obtained ex vivo.