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Th2 biomarkers help identify inflammation in patients with asthma

Th2 biomarker levels appeared to be stable indicators of inflammation in patients with asthma, according to study results.

However, the biomarkers did not appear to help predict high or low bronchodilator reversibility for patients with partly or poorly controlled asthma, according to researchers.

William W. Busse, MD, a professor of medicine at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of data from two phase 2 trials to compare lung function, biomarker profiles and disease control in patients with asthma with high and low bronchodilator reversibility.

The analysis included 622 adults aged 18 to 65 years with partly or poorly controlled moderate to severe asthma. Researchers separated participants into two groups. The first group included participants (n = 237) with high airway reversibility — defined as a greater than or equal to 20% increase in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁) following administration of a short acting bronchodilator during screening and baseline pulmonary function testing ­— labeled by researchers as high bronchodilator reversibility (HR).

The second group included participants (n = 385) with reversibility below the HR level — labeled as low bronchodilator reversibility (LR).

Th2-biomarkers appeared more frequently in patients with HR (40.1% vs. 29.4%; P = .006), lower lung function (FEV₁: 63.5% vs. 67.9% predicted; P < .001) and atopy (93.7% vs. 86.5%; P = .005).

“Our results indicate that conventional Th2-biomarker levels — including blood eosinophils, serum [immunoglobulin-E] levels, and [forced exhaled nitric oxide] — are reasonably stable indicators of the inflammatory state of individual asthmatics receiving fixed medical therapy,” the researchers wrote. “Findings support prior results from [Severe Asthma Research Program] indicating that asthma patients with HR represent a distinct phenotype with worse pulmonary function and less well-controlled disease.” – by Ryan McDonald

Disclosure: Busse reports receiving personal fees from AstraZeneca, Boston Scientific, ICON, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi and Takeda. Please see the full study for a list of all other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.