Authors

Charles S. Dela Cruz, Yale University
Richard G. Wunderink, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
David C. Christiani, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Stephania A. Cormier, Louisiana State University
Kristina Crothers, University of Washington, Seattle
Claire M. Doerschuk, Marsico Lung Institute
Scott E. Evans, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Daniel R. Goldstein, Michigan Medicine
Purvesh Khatri, Stanford University School of Medicine
Lester Kobzik, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jay K. Kolls, Tulane University School of Medicine
Bruce D. Levy, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Mark L. Metersky, School of Medicine
Michael S. Niederman, Weill Cornell Medicine
Roomi Nusrat, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Carlos J. Orihuela, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Paula Peyrani, University of Louisville
Alice S. Prince, Columbia University in the City of New York
Julio A. Ramírez, University of Louisville
Karen M. Ridge, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Sanjay Sethi, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Benjamin T. Suratt, University of Vermont College of Medicine
Jacob I. Sznajder, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Ephraim L. Tsalik, Durham VA Health Care System
Allan J. Walkey, Boston University
Sachin Yende, University of Pittsburgh
Neil R. Aggarwal, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Elisabet V. Caler, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Joseph P. Mizgerd, Boston University

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

7-15-2018

Abstract

Copyright © 2018 by the American Thoracic Society. Pneumonia is a complex pulmonary disease in need of new clinical approaches. Although triggered by a pathogen, pneumonia often results from dysregulations of host defense that likely precede infection. The coordinated activities of immune resistance and tissue resilience then dictate whether and how pneumonia progresses or resolves. Inadequate or inappropriate host responses lead to more severe outcomes such as acute respiratory distress syndrome and to organ dysfunction beyond the lungs and over extended time frames after pathogen clearance, some of which increase the risk for subsequent pneumonia. Improved understanding of such host responses will guide the development of novel approaches for preventing and curing pneumonia and for mitigating the subsequent pulmonary and extrapulmonary complications of pneumonia. The NHLBI assembled a working group of extramural investigators to prioritize avenues of host-directed pneumonia research that should yield novel approaches for interrupting the cycle of unhealthy decline caused by pneumonia. This report summarizes the working group’s specific recommendations in the areas of pneumonia susceptibility, host response, and consequences. Overarching goals include the development of more host-focused clinical approaches for preventing and treating pneumonia, the generation of predictive tools (for pneumonia occurrence, severity, and outcome), and the elucidation of mechanisms mediating immune resistance and tissue resilience in the lung. Specific areas of research are highlighted as especially promising for making advances against pneumonia.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

First Page

256

Last Page

263

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