Nasal epigenetic age and systemic steroid response in pediatric emergency department asthma patients

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem, Emory University; Anwar Osborne, Emory University; Andres Cardenas, University of California Berkeley
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-09-27
• Publisher: WILEY
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/all.15102
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: ALLERGY
• Volume: 77
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 307
• End Page: 309
• Grant/Funding Information: JCN and AC were supported by the National Institutes of Health grants R03AG067064 and R01ES031259.
• Keywords: child; Allergy; asthma exacerbation; steroids; Science & Technology; DNA methylation; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Immunology

Abstract

Asthma is a leading cause of emergency department visits and hospitalizations in children with health-related costs amounting to over $80 billion annually (1). Hence, continued efforts to improve the risk stratification and management of pediatric asthma patients remains important. To better predict asthma severity, Zhu et al. performed an epigenome-wide association study in nasal epithelial cells of 55 African American children with asthma (2). They identified 816 differentially methylated sites and 10 differentially methylated regions. An earlier study of 20 children by this same group similarly identified over 200 sites that were differentially methylated when comparing children who were good versus poor responders to acute systemic steroid treatment (3). Beyond single methylation sites or regions, a few studies have demonstrated relationships of pediatric asthma with blood and nasal cell epigenetic age acceleration – a novel marker of biological age (4,5). Despite this evidence, even fewer studies have evaluated relationships of epigenetic age with treatment responses in pediatric asthma. Given the robust associations of epigenetic age with healthspan and lifespan and its potential clinical utility, improving our understanding of its relationship with asthma could have a profound role in informing patient management and risk stratification moving forward.