title: Biomarkers in asthma: a real hope to better manage asthma.
abstract: Diagnosis and treatment of asthma are currently based on assessment of patient symptoms and physiologic tests of airway reactivity. Research over the past decade has identified an array of biochemical and cellular biomarkers, which reflect the heterogeneous and multiple mechanistic pathways that may lead to asthma. These mechanistic biomarkers offer hope for optimal design of therapies targeting the specific pathways that lead to inflammation. This article provides an overview of blood, urine, and airway biomarkers; summarizes the pathologic pathways that they signify; and begins to describe the utility of biomarkers in the future care of patients with asthma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine-CWRU, 9500 Euclid Avenue, NC22, Cleveland, OH 44195-0001, USA. erzurus@ccf.org
authors.forename: Serpil C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Erzurum
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Gaston
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation; D010641:Phenotype; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers