Microarray-Based Analyses of Rhinovirus Species-Specific Antibody Responses in Exacerbated Pediatric Asthma in a German Pediatric Cohort

Erwan Sallard; Katarzyna Niespodziana; Maja Bajic; Thomas Schlederer; Peter Errhalt; Ann-Kathrin Behrendt; Stefan Wirth; Almut Meyer-Bahlburg; Anja Ehrhardt; Rudolf Valenta; Malik Aydin

doi:10.3390/v14091857

Microarray-Based Analyses of Rhinovirus Species-Specific Antibody Responses in Exacerbated Pediatric Asthma in a German Pediatric Cohort

Viruses. 2022 Aug 24;14(9):1857. doi: 10.3390/v14091857.

Authors

Erwan Sallard¹, Katarzyna Niespodziana^{2

3

4}, Maja Bajic⁴, Thomas Schlederer², Peter Errhalt⁴, Ann-Kathrin Behrendt⁵, Stefan Wirth⁶, Almut Meyer-Bahlburg⁵, Anja Ehrhardt¹, Rudolf Valenta², Malik Aydin^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Virology and Microbiology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research (ZBAF), Department of Human Medicine, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, 58453 Witten, Germany.
² Division of Immunopathology, Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
³ Karl Landsteiner University for Health Sciences, 3500 Krems, Austria.
⁴ Department of Pneumology, University Hospital Krems and Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, 3500 Krems, Austria.
⁵ Pediatric Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University Medicine Greifswald, 17475 Greifswald, Germany.
⁶ Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR), Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University, 42283 Wuppertal, Germany.
⁷ Laboratory of Experimental Pediatric Pneumology and Allergology, Center for Biomedical Education and Research, School of Life Sciences (ZBAF), Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, 58455 Witten, Germany.

Abstract

Rhinoviruses (RV) account for a significant number of asthma exacerbations, and RV species C may be associated with a severe course in vulnerable patient groups. Despite important evidence on the role of RV reported by clinicians and life scientists, there are still unanswered questions regarding their influence on asthma exacerbation in young patients. Thus, we measured the RVspecies-specific IgG titers in our German pediatric exacerbation cohort using a microarray-based technology. For this approach, human sera of patients with exacerbated asthma and wheeze, as well as healthy control subjects (n = 136) were included, and correlation analyses were performed. Concordantly with previously published results, we observed significantly higher cumulative levels of RV species A-specific IgG (p = 0.011) and RV-C-specific IgG (p = 0.051) in exacerbated asthma group compared to age-matched controls. Moreover, atopic wheezers had increased RV-specific IgG levels for species A (p = 0.0011) and species C (p = 0.0009) compared to non-atopic wheezers. Hypothesizing that bacterial infection positively correlates with immune memory against RV, we included nasopharyngeal swab results in our analyses and detected limited correlations. Interestingly, the eosinophil blood titer positively correlated with RV-specific IgG levels. With these observations, we add important observations to the existing data regarding exacerbation in pediatric and adolescent medicine. We propose that scientists and clinicians should pay more attention to the relevance of RV species in susceptible pediatric patients.

Keywords: RV; asthma; exacerbation; microarray; rhinovirus; rhinovirus A; rhinovirus B; rhinovirus C; virus infection; wheeze.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Antibody Formation
Asthma*
Child
Enterovirus Infections* / complications
Humans
Immunoglobulin G
Picornaviridae Infections*
Rhinovirus

Substances

Immunoglobulin G

Associated data

DRKS/DRKS00015738

Grants and funding

This research received funding from the Internal Research Grant of the Faculty of Health at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany (project numbers: IFF 2019-13, IFF 2020-02). Furthermore, this work was supported by the ‘Danube-ARC’ research program of the country of Lower Austria grant no. 330950005. The funding organizations had no role in the design and conduction of the study; sample collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.