Project description:Although desert dust is known to cause increased respiratory morbidity and mortality, the underlying biological pathways remain unclear. We used RNA-seq on an advanced human alveolar in vitro model to find yet unidentified genes dysregulated by Saharan dust exposure. For comparison, DQ12 quartz dust was used as a well-established pulmonary toxicant. Co-cultures of A549 cells and phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA)-differentiated THP-1 cells were cultivated at the air-liquid interface (ALI) for one day before exposure. For exposure, a Vitrocell Cloud 12α system was used. In the exposure chamber, SD or DQ12 suspensions were nebulized onto ALI co-cultures. In parallel, in the control chamber, the vehicle was nebulized onto ALI co-cultures. After exposure for 24 h, RNA was isolated and used for RNA-seq.