Utility of exNO as a non-invasive biomarker of lung inflammation in a disease model

¹ Respiratory Pharmacology, Imperial College London, Faculty of Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, London, UK
² GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage, UK

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: m.belvisi{at}imperial.ac.uk.

	Abstract

There is a great deal of interest in developing less invasive markers for monitoring airway inflammation and the effect of possible novel anti-inflammatory therapies which may take time to impact on disease pathology. Exhaled nitric oxide (exNO) has been shown to be a reproducible, non-invasive indicator of the inflammatory status of the airway in the clinic.

The aim was to determine the usefulness of measuring exNO as a marker of the anti-inflammatory impact of glucocorticoid and an IkappaB kinase-2 (IKK-2) inhibitor (TPCA-1) in a pre-clinical model of airway inflammation. Rats were given vehicle, budesonide or TPCA-1 prior to exposure to LPS, previously shown to induce an increase in exNO and airway neutrophilia/eosinophilia.

Comparison of the effect of the two compounds on inflammatory components demonstrated a significant correlation (r²=0.879, Spearman rank correlation coefficient) between the impact on exNO and inflammatory cell burden in the airway.

This study demonstrates the usefulness of profiling potential disease modifying therapies on exNO levels and how an effect on this non-invasive biomarker relates to effects on pathological parameters such as lung cellularity. Information from studies like these would suggest that the measurement of exNO may have potential for monitoring inflammatory status in lung tissue.

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