Asthma and the role of mould in children (ATOMiC). Version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Is fungal asthma in childhood associated with a distinct inflammatory profile and biomarkers compared to other asthma phenotypes?
IRAS ID
364090
Contact name
Eva Wooding
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Asthma causes wheeze, shortness of breath and cough, and affects 1.1 million children in the United Kingdom (UK). 17.6% of children with asthma have difficult-to-control symptoms, and severe asthma leads to many emergency hospital admissions. 54 children died in the UK from asthma attacks from April 2019-March 2023. Children with severe asthma are more likely to get worse into adulthood. Some people develop allergic sensitisation to mould when exposed. This makes asthma worse in adults, but we do not know how this affects childhood asthma.
This observational study will compare two groups of children with asthma: those with and without mould sensitisation. It is funded by the GW4 Clinical Academic Track Healthcare Professionals PhD fellowship (Wellcome Trust). We aim to recruit 70 children (35 with mild asthma, 35 with moderate-severe asthma) aged 5-17 years over 20 months at a district general hospital and a specialist children’s hospital. We will collect an extra blood sample from children with asthma having planned blood tests in outpatient clinics. We will also collect an extra blood sample and leftover respiratory sample from a small group of children who have had a serious asthma attack admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. We will examine the samples to measure children’s immune cell numbers and how they respond when exposed to moulds and dust mites.
We will compare mould-sensitised children to those who are not. We will collect information about the children like their living environment and how well their asthma has been controlled to understand if there are any differences between the two groups of children. This research will increase our understanding of how mould exposure and sensitisation affect asthma in children. It may help identify better ways to identify and manage fungal asthma in children.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/SW/0039
Date of REC Opinion
5 May 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion