Stefano Guerra

Stefano Guerra

Director, Epidemiology
Professor, Public Health
Professor, Medicine - (Tenure Track)
Research Scientist, Respiratory Sciences
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Contact
(520) 626-7411

Work Summary

Stefano Guerra's work includes an epidemiologic study, which used a household-based approach to assess prevalence and longitudinal changes in respiratory health. Other biomarker projects include a study on molecular biomarkers of asthma and COPD from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.

Research Interest

Stefano Guerra, MD, PhD, is a professor of Medicine, the Director of the Population Science Unit at the Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, and a leading expert in the natural history and biomarkers of obstructive lung diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). As principal investigator, he is engaged in the leadership and coordination of multiple studies that use bio-specimens and phenotypic information from independent epidemiological cohorts to characterize the natural history, profile the risk factors, and identify novel biomarkers of lung diseases.

Publications

Aguilar, D., others, ., Guerra, S., others, ., & Anto, J. M. (2016). Computational analysis of multimorbidity between asthma, eczema and rhinitis. PLOS ONE.
Donaire-Gonzalez, D., Gimeno-Santos, E., Balcells, E., de Batlle, J., Ramon, M. A., Rodriguez, E., Farrero, E., Benet, M., Guerra, S., Sauleda, J., Ferrer, A., Ferrer, J., Barberà, J. A., Rodriguez-Roisin, R., Gea, J., Agustí, A., Antó, J. M., & Garcia-Aymerich, J. (2015). Benefits of physical activity on COPD hospitalisation depend on intensity. The European respiratory journal, 46(5), 1281-9.

The present study aims to disentangle the independent effects of the quantity and the intensity of physical activity on the risk reduction of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalisations.177 patients from the Phenotype Characterization and Course of COPD (PAC-COPD) cohort (mean±sd age 71±8 years, forced expiratory volume in 1 s 52±16% predicted) wore the SenseWear Pro 2 Armband accelerometer (BodyMedia, Pittsburgh, PA, USA) for eight consecutive days, providing data on quantity (steps per day, physically active days and daily active time) and intensity (average metabolic equivalent tasks) of physical activity. Information on COPD hospitalisations during follow-up (2.5±0.8 years) was obtained from validated centralised datasets. During follow-up 67 (38%) patients were hospitalised. There was an interaction between quantity and intensity of physical activity in their effects on COPD hospitalisation risk. After adjusting for potential confounders in the Cox regression model, the risk of COPD hospitalisation was reduced by 20% (hazard ratio (HR) 0.79, 95% CI 0.67-0.93; p=0.005) for every additional 1000 daily steps at low average intensity. A greater quantity of daily steps at high average intensity did not influence the risk of COPD hospitalisations (HR 1.01, p=0.919). Similar results were found for the other measures of quantity of physical activity. Greater quantity of low-intensity physical activity reduces the risk of COPD hospitalisation, but high-intensity physical activity does not produce any risk reduction.

DeVries, A., Wlasiuk, G., Miller, S. J., Bosco, A., Stern, D. A., Lohman, I. C., Rothers, J., Jones, A. C., Nicodemus-Johnson, J., Vasquez, M. M., Curtin, J. A., Simpson, A., Custovic, A., Jackson, D. J., Gern, J. E., Lemanske, R. F., Guerra, S., Wright, A. L., Ober, C., , Halonen, M., et al. (2017). Epigenome-wide Analysis Links SMAD3 Methylation at Birth to Asthma in Children of Asthmatic Mothers. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology.

The timing and mechanisms of asthma inception remain imprecisely defined. Although epigenetic mechanisms likely contribute to asthma pathogenesis, little is known about their role in asthma inception.

Rava, M., Le Moual, N., Dumont, X., Guerra, S., Siroux, V., Jacquemin, B., Kauffmann, F., Bernard, A., & Nadif, R. (2015). Serum club cell protein 16 is associated with asymptomatic airway responsiveness in adults: Findings from the French epidemiological study on the genetics and environment of asthma. Respirology (Carlton, Vic.), 20(8), 1198-205.

Club cell secretory protein (CC-16) is a sensitive biomarker of airways epithelium integrity. It has gained interest as a biological marker in chronic lung diseases because of its presumed relationship to inflammation. Little is known about the association between CC-16 serum level and asthma, lung function and airway responsiveness (AR).

Tischer, C., Zock, J., Valkonen, M., Doekes, G., Guerra, S., Heederik, D., Jarvis, D., Norbäck, D., Olivieri, M., Sunyer, J., Svanes, C., Täubel, M., Thiering, E., Verlato, G., Hyvärinen, A., & Heinrich, J. (2015). Predictors of microbial agents in dust and respiratory health in the Ecrhs. BMC pulmonary medicine, 15, 48.

Dampness and mould exposure have been repeatedly associated with respiratory health. However, less is known about the specific agents provoking or arresting health effects in adult populations. We aimed to assess predictors of microbial agents in mattress dust throughout Europe and to investigate associations between microbial exposures, home characteristics and respiratory health.