Department of Respiratory Medicine, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Department of Experimental Immunology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Department of Biomedical Engineering and University Children’s Hospital, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
René Lutter
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Department of Experimental Immunology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Binbin Xu
University of Bordeaux, Inserm, Bordeaux Population Health Research Center, UMR 1219, Bordeaux, France
Tamara Dekker
Department of Experimental Immunology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Barbara Dierdorp
Department of Experimental Immunology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Peter J Sterk
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Urs Frey
Department of Biomedical Engineering and University Children’s Hospital, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Asthma is a dynamic disease, in which lung mechanical and inflammatory processes interact in a complex manner, often resulting in exaggerated physiological, in particular, inflammatory responses to exogenous triggers. We hypothesize that this may be explained by respiratory disease-related systems instability and loss of adaptability to changing environmental conditions, manifested in highly fluctuating biomarkers and symptoms. Using time series of inflammatory (eosinophils, neutrophils, FeNO), clinical and lung function biomarkers (PEF, FVC,FEV1), we estimated this loss of adaptive capacity (AC) during an experimental rhinovirus infection in 24 healthy and asthmatic human volunteers. Loss of AC was estimated by comparing similarities between pre- and post-challenge time series. Unlike healthy participants, the asthmatic’s post-viral-challenge state resembled more other rhinovirus-infected asthmatics than their own pre-viral-challenge state (hypergeometric-test: p=0.029). This reveals loss of AC and supports the concept that in asthma, biological processes underlying inflammatory and physiological responses are unstable, contributing to loss of control.
