Severe asthma in children is characterized by sustained symptoms despite treatment with high doses of inhaled corticosteroids or oral corticosteroids. Children with severe asthma may fall into 2 categories, difficult-to-treat asthma or severe therapy-resistant asthma. Difficult-to-treat asthma is defined as poor control due to an incorrect diagnosis or comorbidities, or poor adherence due to adverse psychological or environmental factors. In contrast, treatment resistant is defined as difficult asthma despite management of these factors. It is increasingly recognized that severe asthma is a highly heterogeneous disorder associated with a number of clinical and inflammatory phenotypes that have been described in children with severe asthma. Guideline-based drug therapy of severe childhood asthma is based primarily on extrapolated data from adult studies. The recommendation is that children with severe asthma be treated with higher-dose inhaled or oral corticosteroids combined with long-acting β-agonists and other add-on therapies, such as antileukotrienes and methylxanthines. It is important to identify and address the influences that make asthma difficult to control, including reviewing the diagnosis and removing causal or aggravating factors. Better definition of the phenotypes and better targeting of therapy based upon individual patient phenotypes is likely to improve asthma treatment in the future.
Background
Children with severe asthma have persistent symptoms despite treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs). The differentiating features of severe asthma in children are poorly defined.
Objective
To identify features of severe versus mild-to-moderate asthma in school-age children using noninvasive assessments of lung function, atopy, and airway inflammation.
Methods
A total of 75 children (median age, 10 years) with asthma underwent baseline characterization including spirometry and lung volume testing, methacholine bronchoprovocation, allergy evaluation, and offline measurement of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO). Twenty-eight were followed longitudinally over 6 months. Participants were assigned to the severe asthma subgroup if they required high-dose ICS plus 2 or more minor criteria.
Results
Children with severe versus mild-to-moderate asthma had more symptoms, greater airway obstruction, more gas trapping, and increased bronchial responsiveness to methacholine. Subjects with severe asthma also had higher concentrations of FENO and significantly greater sensitization to aeroallergens. With long-term study, both the reduction in FEV1 and increase in FENO persisted in the severe versus mild-to-moderate group. Furthermore, despite adjustments in ICS doses, the frequency of exacerbations was significantly higher in subjects with severe (83%) versus mild-to-moderate asthma (43%).
Conclusion
Severe asthma in childhood is characterized by poor symptom control despite high-dose ICS treatment and can be differentiated from mild-to-moderate asthma by measurement of lung function and FENO.
Clinical implications
Clinicians should suspect severe asthma in children with poor response to ICS, airway obstruction, and high FENO.
Background
Severe asthma is characterized by persistent airway inflammation and increased formation of reactive oxygen species.
Objectives
Glutathione (GSH) is an important antioxidant in the epithelial lining fluid (ELF). We hypothesized that airway GSH homeostasis was altered in children with severe asthma and was characterized by decreased GSH and increased glutathione disulfide (GSSG) concentrations.
Methods
Bronchoalveolar lavage was obtained from 65 children with severe asthma, including 35 children with baseline airway obstruction evidenced by FEV1 <80%. Control data were obtained from 6 children with psychogenic (habit) cough or vocal cord dysfunction undergoing diagnostic bronchoscopy and 35 healthy adult controls. GSH, GSSG, and other determinants of airway oxidative stress including glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), malondialdehyde, 8-isoprostane, and H2O2 were measured in the ELF. The ELF redox potential was calculated from GSH and GSSG by using the Nernst equation. Results: Compared with controls, subjects with severe asthma had lower airway GSH with increased GSSG despite no differences in GST, GR, and GPx activities between groups. This was accompanied by increased malondialdehyde, 8-isoprostane, and H2O2 concentrations in the ELF. GSH oxidation was most apparent in subjects with severe asthma with airway obstruction and was supported by an upward shift in the ELF GSH redox potential.
Conclusion
Children with severe asthma have increased biomarkers of oxidant stress in the ELF that are associated with increased formation of GSSG and a shift in the GSH redox potential toward the more oxidized state.
Although patients with “severe” asthma tend to be characterized by ongoing symptoms and airway inflammation despite treatment with high doses of inhaled and systemic corticosteroids, there is increasing recognition of marked phenotypic heterogeneity within affected patients. Although “precision medicine” approaches for patients with severe asthma are needed, there are many hurdles that must be overcome in daily practice. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP) has been at the forefront of phenotype discovery in severe asthma for the past decade. SARP, along with other international groups, has described clinical severe asthma phenotypes in both adults and children that can be evaluated in the clinical setting. Although these clinical phenotypes provide a good “starting point” for addressing disease heterogeneity in severe asthma in everyday practice, more efforts are needed to understand how these phenotypes relate to underlying disease mechanisms and pharmacological treatment responses. This review highlights the clinical asthma phenotypes identified to date, their associations with underlying endotypes and potential biomarkers, and remaining knowledge gaps that must be addressed before precision medicine can become a reality for patients with severe asthma.
Background
Lower respiratory tract infection is a differentiating feature of children with poorly controlled asthma. Objective: Given the role of alveolar macrophages (AMs) in innate immunity, we hypothesized that AM phagocytosis might be impaired in poorly controlled asthma.
Methods
Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid AMs were isolated from 28 asthmatic children (moderate asthma, n = 12; severe asthma, n = 16), 10 nonasthmatic children with chronic cough treated with inhaled corticosteroids, and 10 healthy adult control subjects. AMs were stimulated with LPS and exposed to fluorescein isothiocyanate–conjugated Staphylococcus aureus for 2 hours. Phagocytosis was quantified by using a phagocytic index (PI) calculated from the percentage of phagocytic cells multiplied by the relative fluorescence (RFU) units of S aureus per cell. Apoptosis was determined from the percentage of cells positive for poly (adenosine diphosphate–ribose) polymerase.
Results
Phagocytosis as measured by using the unstimulated PI was decreased in subjects with poorly controlled asthma (healthy control subjects, 9330 ± 3992 RFU; chronic cough, 9042 ± 5976 RFU; moderate asthma, 4361 ± 2536 RFU; severe asthma, 3153 ± 1886 RFU; P < .001) and remained unchanged with LPS stimulation. Children with severe asthma also had increased AM apoptosis, both the unstimulated and LPS-simulated states (P < .001), which correlated with the PI.
Conclusions
AM function is compromised in children with poorly controlled asthma and is characterized by decreased phagocytosis and increased apoptosis.