Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) infections are frequent in the adult population with CF, causing sometimes severe lung disease, sometimes a much milder outcome. Therefore, it would be important to identify some biological markers, possibly from both the Mycobacterium and the CF patient’s immune response, in order to anticipate the outcome.

To unravel these markers, we aimed at: i) at characterizing  the virulence of M. abscessus strains isolated at different stages of lung disease and ii) at identifying host markers (e.g. inflammatory cells) through the use of new Omics techniques (analysis of the RNA of single cells which allow the production of information on various biological variables, in very high numbers and in the same interval of time) and in particular thanks to the technology called Single cell RNA Sequencing. Concerning mycobacteria, we have identified that M. abscessus strains with different phenotypic characteristics display a different virulence. In terms of host response, we have preliminarily studied the RNAs in monocytes, a type of white blood cell highly involved in the defensive response against NTMs. Overall, this project collected and defined new candidate potential markers that will be validated in a larger number of subjects in the next FFC project (FFC#7/2022). As anticipated, the final goal is to validate these new biomarkers, to provide new evaluation based-evidences that will support a better diagnosis.