Zhongguo quanke yixue (May 2022)
A Comparative Study of Levels of Serum Biomarkers in Patients with Different Stages of Asthma
Abstract
Background Asthma is a complex heterogeneous disease, whose frequent acute attacks seriously affect the quality of life of patients, and cause a heavy economic burden. The recent development of serum biomarkers provides a new idea for accurate treatment of asthma and diagnosis and treatment of refractory asthma. Objective To analyze the difference of serum biomarkers between different stages of asthma patients and healthy people, and to explore the predictive potential of different serum biomarkers for acute asthma attack. Methods A cross-sectional design was used. Participants were recruited from the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine during November 2018 to December 2020, including 293 asthma patients (155 in the acute attack stage, and 138 in non-acute attack stage) , and 39 healthy volunteers from physical examinee center of this hospital. ELISA was used to detect the contents of serum biomarkers〔interleukin 4 (IL-4) , interleukin 6 (IL-6) , interleukin 8 (IL-8) , interleukin17 (IL-17) , interferon-γ (IFN-γ) , transforming growth factor-β2 (TGF-β2) , tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) , total immunoglobulin E (TIgE) , specific immunoglobulin E (SIgE) , eosinophil-selective chemokine (Eotaxin) , eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) , periostin, leukotriene D4 (LTD4) , high mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1) , chitinase 3-like protein 1 (YKL-40) 〕. Results Compared with healthy volunteers, both acute and non-acute attack asthma patients had higher levels of serum IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17, TGF-β2, TNF-α, HMGB1, TIgE and SIgE, and lower level of serum IFN-γ (P<0.05) . The levels of serum Eotaxin and YKL-40 in acute attack asthma patients were higher than those in non-acute attack asthma patients and healthy volunteers (P<0.05) . The levels of Eotaxin and YKL-40 in non-acute attack asthma patients were higher than those in healthy volunteers (P<0.05) . In addition, the level of periostin in non-acute attack asthma patients was lower than that in healthy volunteers (P<0.05) . Conclusion Serum IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17, IFN-γ, TGF-β2, TNF-α, SIgE, TIgE, HMGB1 may be related to asthma, but their expression levels may not be related to disease stage. Eotaxin and YKL-40 may be potential predictors of the acute attack of asthma.
Keywords
