Abstract
Rationale: U-BIOPRED, a European public-private collaboration, aims to sub-phenotype severe asthma using a systems medicine approach to describe its handprint.
Methods: An interim analysis of the characteristics and inflammatory markers of severe asthma defined according to Thorax 2011; 66: 910 is presented.
NA: not available
Results: The adult severe asthma cohort had chronic airflow obstruction, with higher sputum eosinophils (SpE) compared to moderate asthma. The school-age severe asthma cohort had no evidence of obstruction but higher FeNO levels than moderate asthma. Pre-bronchodilator FEV1 (% pred) in adults inversely correlated with SpE and neutrophils, while SpE positively correlated with FeNO. In children, preBD FEV1 inversely correlated with FeNO. Analysis of the adult cohort according to use of maintenance prednisolone showed that this subphenotype was associated with lower IgE and blood eosinophil level, but similar SpE and FeNO.
Conclusions: Severe asthma patients characterised by high SpE and FeNO despite high corticosteroid therapy, represents a steroid-insensitive subgroup. Analysis of associated lipidomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data will provide a better handprint.
- © 2013 ERS
