Allergic diseases include asthma, atopic-dermatitis, allergic-rhinitis,
drug hypersensitivity and food-allergy. During the past years, there has
been a global outbreak of allergic diseases, presenting a considerable
medical and socioeconomical-burden. A large fraction of allergic
diseases is characterized by a type-2 immune response involving Th2
cells, type-2 innate lymphoid cells, eosinophils, mast cells, and M2
macrophages. Biomarkers are valuable parameters for precision medicine
as they provide information on the disease endotypes, clusters,
precision diagnoses, identification of therapeutic targets, and
monitoring of treatment efficacies. The availability of powerful omics
technologies, together with integrated data analysis and network-based
approaches can help the identification of clinically useful biomarkers.
These biomarkers need to be accurately quantified using robust and
reproducible methods, such as reliable and point-of-care systems.
Ideally, samples should be collected using quick, cost-efficient and
non-invasive methods. In recent years, a plethora of research has been
directed towards finding novel biomarkers of allergic diseases.
Promising biomarkers of type-2 allergic diseases include sputum
eosinophils, serum periostin and exhaled nitric-oxide. Several other
biomarkers, such as pro-inflammatory mediators, miRNAs, eicosanoid
molecules, epithelial barrier integrity, and microbiota changes are
useful for diagnosis and monitoring of allergic diseases and can be
quantified in serum, body-fluids and exhaled-air. Herein, we review
recent studies on biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma,
chronic-urticaria, atopic-dermatitis, allergic-rhinitis,
chronic-rhinosinusitis, food-allergies, anaphylaxis, drug
hypersensitivity and allergen-immunotherapy. In addition, we discuss
COVID-19 and allergic diseases within the perspective of biomarkers and
recommendations on the management of allergic and asthmatic patients
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
