Extract
We would like to comment on the interesting report by Sparreman Mikus et al. [1] from the U-BIOPRED Group and the BIOAIR Consortium. The study identified 10 plasma proteins associated with severe asthma present in both the discovery (U-BIOPRED) and validation (BIOAIR) cohorts. These proteins included inflammatory cytokines, growth factors and chitinases, and also sphingolipid pathway, complement cascade and mast cell-related proteins. Notably, these associations were reported to be independent of steroid treatment, and unrelated to type-2 inflammation. We note that all these protein categories can be linked to pathogenesis of the infectious agents previously associated with asthma (rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia pneumoniae and Chlamydia trachomatis) [2–4].
Abstract
The U-BIOPRED/BIOAIR proteins are associated with host responses to infections https://bit.ly/3lO2S3r
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: D.L. Hahn and W. Webley are uncompensated members of the Intracell Research Group (IRG) scientific advisory board. The mission of IRG includes dissemination of evidence for chronic infection in chronic diseases including asthma. Outside the submitted work, W. Webley also reports grant funding from USDA/NIFA, and lecture honoraria from Baystate Medical Center.
- Received March 17, 2022.
- Accepted May 19, 2022.
- Copyright ©The authors 2022. For reproduction rights and permissions contact permissions{at}ersnet.org