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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Christopher WardORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2024.Introduction: Immunoglobulins play a vital role in host immune response and in the pathogenesis of conditions like asthma. Therapeutic agents such as monoclonal antibodies target specific elements of the asthmatic inflammatory cascade. Decisions to utilize these medications are often based on systemic inflammatory profiling without direct insight into the airway inflammatory profile. We sought to investigate the relationship between immunoglobulin and cytokine profiles in the airway and systemic immune compartments of adult asthmatics. Methods: Blood sampling and bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) were performed in 76 well-defined adult asthmatics. Antibody and cytokine profiles were measured in both BAL and serum using ELISA and quantibody arrays. Results: There was no relationship between BAL and serum levels of IgE. This is of significance in an asthma population. For some analytes, correlation analysis was significant (P < 0.05) indicating representativeness of our cohort and experimental setup in those cases. Nevertheless, the predictive power (r2) of the BAL-to-serum comparisons was mostly low except for TNF-α (r2 = 0.73) when assuming a simple (linear) relationship. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of sample site when investigating the roles of immunoglobulins and cytokines in disease pathogenesis and suggests that both localized and systemic immune responses are at play. The prescription of asthma monoclonal therapy is generally based on systemic evaluation of cytokine and immunoglobulin levels. Our research suggests that this approach may not fully reflect the pathophysiology of the disease and may provide insight into why some patients respond to these targeted therapies while others do not.
Author(s): Walsh LJ, Sullivan A, Ward C, Hunt EB, Lapthorne S, Eustace JA, Fanning LJ, Plant BJ, O'Byrne PM, MacSharry JA, Murphy DM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Lung
Year: 2024
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 07/05/2024
Acceptance date: 12/04/2024
Date deposited: 20/05/2024
ISSN (print): 0341-2040
ISSN (electronic): 1432-1750
Publisher: Springer
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-024-00699-x
DOI: 10.1007/s00408-024-00699-x
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