Impacts of inhaled exposures on the upper respiratory tract microbiome: a systematic review

Key Points

• Examine how inhaled exposures affect the upper respiratory tract microbiome and associated respiratory health outcomes.
• Conducted a systematic review of existing studies on upper respiratory tract microbiome and inhaled exposures.
• Analyzed methodological variations across studies to assess comparability.
• Identified gaps in longitudinal designs and functional analyses, such as metagenomics.
• Found that the upper respiratory tract microbiome is significantly impacted by inhaled exposures.
• Noted a lack of standardized methods that hinder direct comparisons across studies.
• Highlighted a need for future studies to include ecological and functional assessments of microbial changes.