Aspergillus-related Diseases in a Cohort of Patients with Severe Asthma: A SANI Single-Center Report.

Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous fungus growing in many environments including the human body, where it can be deposited throughout the lung. Normally, conidia are cleared by immune defenses, although saprophytic noninvasive colonization often occurs in immunocompetent subjects. Strong evidence links Aspergillus exposure with severe asthma (SA), in which defective clearance of spores allows their germination into hyphae that damage airways by producing proteases and inducing inflammatory cytokines release.