Heavy alcohol drinking is known to increase the risk of bacterial pneumonia. However, the link between alcohol levels and risk of infection remains underexplored. Recently, we found that alcohol induced α2‐6sialo mucin O‐glycans in human tracheobronchial epithelial cells, which mediated the killing of U937 macrophages. By extending this study, we focus here on whether altered glycans induced by alcohol in human airway epithelial cells can promote adhesion of Klebsiella pneumoniae ( Kp ) and Streptococcus pneumonia…

Agricultural workers exposed to organic dust from swine concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have increased chances of contracting chronic lung disease. Mucociliary clearance represents a first line of defense against inhaled dusts, but organic dust extracts (ODEs) from swine barns cause cilia slowing, leading to decreased bacterial clearance and increased lung inflammation. Because nutritional zinc deficiency is associated with chronic lung disease, we examined the role of zinc supplementation in ODE-me…

Alcohol misuse increases infections and cancer fatalities, but mechanisms underlying its toxicity are ill‐defined. We show that alcohol treatment of human tracheobronchial epithelial cells leads to inactivation of giantin‐mediated Golgi targeting of glycosylation enzymes. Loss of core 2 N ‐acetylglucosaminyltransferase 1, which uses only giantin for Golgi targeting, coupled with shifted targeting of other glycosylation enzymes to Golgi matrix protein 130‐Golgi reassembly stacking protein 65, the site normally used…

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) affects 30 million Americans. Previous epidemiologic work has shown that diet can impact pulmonary function in those with and without COPD. Diet is also a major driver of gut microbiome composition and function. Importantly, the gut microbiome has also been associated with lung health (i.e., the gut-lung axis) in both preclinical and clinical studies. Despite this growing body of evidence, many questions remain regarding the gut-lung axis. Specifically, how the microbio…

Preclinical studies have shown that chronic alcohol abuse leads to alterations in the gastrointestinal microbiota that are associated with behavior changes, physiological alterations, and immunological effects. However, such studies have been limited in their ability to evaluate the direct effects of alcohol-associated dysbiosis. To address this, we developed a humanized alcohol-microbiota mouse model to systematically evaluate the immunological effects of chronic alcohol abuse mediated by intestinal dysbiosis. Ge…