The Role of Systems Biology in Deciphering Asthma Heterogeneity

Abstract

Asthma is one of the most common and lifelong and chronic inflammatory diseases characterized by inflammation, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and airway obstruction episodes. It is a heterogeneous disease of varying and overlapping phenotypes with many confounding factors playing a role in disease susceptibility and management. Such multifactorial disorders will benefit from using systems biology as a strategy to elucidate molecular insights from complex, quantitative, massive clinical, and biological data that will help to understand the underlying disease mechanism, early detection, and treatment planning. Systems biology is an approach that uses the comprehensive understanding of living systems through bioinformatics, mathematical, and computational techniques to model diverse high-throughput molecular, cellular, and the physiologic profiling of healthy and diseased populations to define biological processes. The use of systems biology has helped understand and enrich our knowledge of asthma heterogeneity and molecular basis; however, such methods have their limitations. The translational benefits of these studies are few, and it is recommended to reanalyze the different studies and omics in conjugation with one another which may help understand the reasons for this variation and help overcome the limitations of understanding the heterogeneity in asthma pathology. In this review, we aim to show the different factors that play a role in asthma heterogeneity and how systems biology may aid in understanding and deciphering the molecular basis of asthma.

Particles in Exhaled Air (PExA): Clinical Uses and Future Implications

“…Our current understanding of the disease-host response is beginning to widen as the incorporation of multi-omics to standard clinical practice becomes more readily available. Already, in asthma and COPD, multi-omics data are facilitating phenotyping, biomarker identification, and the introduction of personalized medicine [91][92][93].…”

Association of Metabolites, Nutrients, and Toxins in Maternal and Cord Serum with Asthma, IgE, SPT, FeNO, and Lung Function in Offspring

“…Among respiratory and allergic diseases, asthma is a common chronic condition in children and its development involves a complex interface of genetics and epigenetic regulations [ 6 ]. It is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness and airway inflammation [ 7 ]. Allergic sensitization plays a major role in the development of asthma [ 8 ] and it is assessed by positive skin prick testing (SPT) [ 9 ].…”