EBC metabolomics for asthma severity

J Breath Res. 2020 Jul 3;14(3):036007. doi: 10.1088/1752-7163/ab9220.

Abstract

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease with diverse severity and represents a considerable socio-economic burden. Exhaled Breath Condensate (EBC) is a biofluid directly obtained from the airway lining fluid non-invasively. We attempted to discriminate severe from mild-to-moderate asthma using EBC metabolomics based on both NMR and UHPLC-MS techniques. 36 patients were included in this study (15 patients with severe and 21 with mild-to-moderate asthma). EBC was collected and analyzed using both NMR and UHPLC-MS techniques for possible metabolites. Using PLS and oPLS analysis for the UHPLC-MS data, no metabolite was found to be sufficient for the discrimination of asthma severity. However, when another PLS-regression model was applied five metabolites were found to discriminate severe from mild-to-moderate asthma. Amino-acid lysine was the only metabolite that discriminated the two study groups using NMR data (p= 0.04, t-test with Welch's correction, AUC 0.66). EBC is an easily available biofluid which directly represents the lower airways but difficult-to-use for metabolomic analysis. Our study presents some encouraging findings for the discrimination of asthma severity subgroups using EBC metabolomics but more well-designed studies with a higher number of patients need to be conducted.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Asthma / diagnosis*
  • Asthma / metabolism*
  • Biomarkers / metabolism
  • Breath Tests / methods*
  • Discriminant Analysis
  • Exhalation*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Least-Squares Analysis
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Male
  • Metabolomics*
  • Middle Aged
  • Severity of Illness Index*

Substances

  • Biomarkers