New pathological markers identified for severe asthma

U‐BIOPRED study sheds light on new pathological markers that distinguish severe asthma from less severe forms of the disease.

Despite identifying the subtype of severe asthma, there is still a need to understand the basis for disease persistence and in particular, cases of the disease that are linked with inflammation. Better understanding of this area would allow for more personalised approaches to treatment and possibly the development of new medicines.

In this new study, researchers aimed to investigate the immunopathology of the airways of severe asthmatics using a cross sectional, bronchoscopy sub‐study to compare bronchial immunopathology. They looked at three steroid treated adult asthma groups; severe non‐smokers (SAn), severe current/ ex‐smokers (SAs/ex) and mild‐moderate disease (MMA) and a healthy control (HC) group, to ultimately better understand severe asthma.

Data was collected from 158 participants using immunopathologic and transcriptomic analysis testing for bronchial biopsies and bronchial epithelial brushings.

The findings revealed that severe asthma persists in patients on recommended therapy despite suppressed tissue inflammation within the proximal airway wall.

The results indicate that stable severe asthmatics on adequate therapy do not have major changes in inflammatory cell infiltration within the bronchial mucosa of their large airways, suggesting that the severity of severe asthma is driven by other mechanisms such as cellular activation status or inflammation elsewhere.

Read the full study