Impact of comorbid conditions on asthmatic adults and children

Comorbid conditions (comorbidities) can complicate the diagnosis and management of asthma. In different age groups, comorbid conditions can present varying challenges, including diagnostic confusion due to mimicking asthma symptoms, exacerbation of asthma symptoms, therapy for comorbid conditions affecting asthma or therapy for asthma affecting these conditions. This review aims to summarise some common comorbid conditions with asthma, such as rhinitis, vocal cord dysfunction, gastro-oesophageal reflux, psychiatric disorders, obesity and obstructive sleep apnoea, and discuss their prevalence, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, highlighting any differences in how they impact children and adults. Overall, there is a lack of data on the impact of treating comorbid conditions on asthma outcomes and further studies are needed to guide age-appropriate asthma management in the presence of these conditions.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.A.K. reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, Behring, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Griffols, Teva, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Paladdin, Pfizer, Purdue, Sanofi and Trudel, outside the submitted work. D.M.G.H. reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, Chiesi and Pfizer and grants and personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, outside the submitted work. S.J.S. reports fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Propeller Health, Regeneron and Sanofi, outside the submitted work all paid to the University of Colorado School of Medicinepublished version, accepted version, submitted versio

Inducible system for lateral roots in Arabidopsis thaliana and maize

The study of biological processes contributing to plant growth can be complicated by the small number of cells involved and by the brief and sudden appearance of some crucial developmental steps. Given such troublesome circumstances, methods to monitor the timing or to increase the number of concerned cells can be of great advantage to researchers. Lateral root initiation is a process taking place endogenously in a discrete number of cells of the parent root. It represents the onset of the formation of a new meristem and provides the below ground part of the plant the ability to react on environmental conditions such as nutrient and water availability. Insights into the underlying mechanisms of this developmental event can be of major importance to provide means of improving tolerance to nutrient and water de fi cient conditions. The exact timing and site of lateral root initiation are, however, impossible to predict, hampering exhaustive studies of the sequence of events directing this process. Here, we present a method to synchronize the induction of lateral roots in Arabidopsis thaliana and maize. By initially preventing the formation of laterals in young seedlings and subsequently inducing lateral root initiation, this method not only allows controlling the process in time but also enlarges significantly the population of cells involved, opening up the way to systems biology approaches