Front Immunol. 2026 Sep 2;17:1902053. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2026.1902053. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

Childhood asthma is a highly heterogeneous chronic respiratory disease, and its onset and progression are intricately linked to genetic susceptibility, environmental exposure, immune development, and the establishment of the early-life microbiome. In recent years, studies on the gut and respiratory microbiomes have suggested that the composition, metabolic functions, and interactions of microbial communities with the host immune system may be involved in the formation of asthma susceptibility, shaping of inflammatory phenotypes, and disease progression in children. The gut-lung axis, as an important pathway connecting gut microbiome, respiratory immunity, and systemic inflammatory responses, provides a new perspective for understanding the early mechanisms of childhood asthma. This article reviews the characteristics of the respiratory and gut microbiomes associated with childhood asthma, with a focus on the roles of the gut-lung axis, microbial metabolites, mucosal immune regulation, and environmental exposure. It also evaluates the research progress of probiotics, prebiotics, nutritional interventions, and novel microecological therapies. Additionally, the potential of microbial maturity, microbial metabolites, and immunophenotypes as biomarkers for risk prediction, phenotype stratification, and treatment response is analyzed. Furthermore, the role of multi-omics integration in supporting the identification of responsive populations, matching of intervention strategies, and dynamic monitoring of efficacy is discussed. Current evidence suggests that the microbiome offers promising targets for risk assessment and precision prevention of childhood asthma. However, relevant research still faces challenges such as ambiguous causality, high cohort heterogeneity, limited reproducibility of candidate biomarkers, inconsistent intervention outcomes, and insufficient evidence of long-term safety. At present, most biomarkers and multi-omics models remain in the stage of association discovery, lacking unified thresholds, cross-cohort validation, and biomarker-guided randomized controlled trials in children. Therefore, they cannot be routinely used for patient stratification or intervention selection. Future efforts should rely on standardized longitudinal birth cohorts, multi-omics integration, external validation, and high-quality clinical trials to clarify the incremental value of microbiome biomarkers over traditional clinical indicators and their clinical utility in the individualized management of childhood asthma.

PMID:42751182 | PMC:PMC13580037 | DOI:10.3389/fimmu.2026.1902053

Clin Epigenetics. 2026 May 26;18(1):90. doi: 10.1186/s13148-026-02084-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Non-invasive biomarkers offer potential to improve risk stratification and early diagnosis of lung cancer, complementing low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening. This study employed bibliometric analysis to identify global research trends, collaborative networks, and future directions in lung cancer biomarker research. Publications on lung cancer biomarkers for screening were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Data processing and visualisation were performed using Citespace, VOSviewer, KH Coder, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling, and the online bibliometric analysis platform. Burst detection analysis was performed to predict emerging research trends.

RESULTS: Analysis of 3636 publications revealed exponential growth in research output since 2014. International collaboration demonstrated a dual-core structure centred on China and the United States, with Chinese institutions showing high publication volumes and American institutions demonstrating greater citation influence. Journal citation mapping revealed three evolutionary phases: basic mechanisms-clinical translation-intelligent integration. LDA topic modelling identified 22 topics grouped into five core research directions: imaging and pathological diagnostic techniques; molecular and omics marker research; liquid biopsy and new detection technologies; clinical and translational medicine research; and tumour biology and treatment mechanisms. Burst detection analysis predicted future four priority areas: epigenetic studies centred on DNA methylation for risk prediction; treatment resistance and invasion mechanisms; liquid biopsy technology development; and targeted therapy clinical trials.

CONCLUSIONS: Lung cancer biomarker research has evolved towards multimodal, intelligent screening approaches. Future research priorities include DNA methylation-based markers, circulating microRNA signatures, and artificial intelligence-assisted diagnostic platforms to improve early detection accuracy and complement LDCT screening.

PMID:42185923 | DOI:10.1186/s13148-026-02084-2