TY - JOUR T1 - Age-dependent response of the human nasal epithelium to rhinovirus infection JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.00877-2020 VL - 56 IS - 5 SP - 2000877 AU - Jakob Usemann AU - Marco P. Alves AU - Nicole Ritz AU - Philipp Latzin AU - Loretta Müller Y1 - 2020/11/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/56/5/2000877.abstract N2 - Rhinovirus-induced wheezing in early childhood is a major risk factor for later asthma [1, 2] and rhinovirus infections have been identified as a main reason for asthma exacerbations [3–5]. While rhinovirus infections can manifest with a severe clinical course, rhinoviruses can also colonise the respiratory tract asymptomatically [6–8]. Thus, additional factors seem to determine which children develop a symptomatic rhinovirus infection and are at increased risk for asthma development, and which remain asymptomatic. For example, there is a genetic susceptibility, since rhinovirus-induced wheezing and specific genetic variants increase the risk for asthma [9].After rhinovirus (RV) infection, RV viral loads are higher and immune factor expressions lower in nasal epithelial cells from children versus adults in vitro. This may explain age-dependent severity of RV infections and association with asthma development https://bit.ly/2zNfJhDWe would like to thank all volunteers for donating nasal cells, Thomas Erb (University Children's Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland), and his team for performing the nasal brushings, Selina K. Steiner and Andrea Zelmer (both University Children's Hospital Basel) for their excellent laboratory work, and Karine Bell Hugentobler (University Children's Hospital Basel) for proofreading the manuscript. ER -