title: Childhood asthma biomarkers: present knowledge and future steps.
abstract: Asthma represents the most common chronic respiratory disease of childhood. Its current standard diagnosis relies on patient history of symptoms and confirmed expiratory airflow limitation. Nevertheless, the spectrum of asthma in clinical presentation is broad, and both symptoms and lung function may not always reflect the underlying airway inflammation, which can be determined by different pathogenetic mechanisms. For these reasons, the identification of objective biomarkers of asthma, which may guide diagnosis, phenotyping, management and treatment is of great clinical utility and might have a role in the development of personalized therapy. The availability of non-invasive methods to study and monitor disease inflammation is of relevance especially in childhood asthma. In this sense, a promising role might be played by the measurement of exhaled biomarkers, such as exhaled nitric oxide (FE(NO)) and molecules in exhaled breath condensate (EBC). Furthermore, recent studies have shown encouraging results with the application of the novel metabolomic approach to the study of exhaled biomarkers. In this paper the existing knowledge in the field of asthma biomarkers, with a special focus on exhaled biomarkers, will be highlighted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Padova, Padova Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moschino
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Padova, Padova Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zanconato
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Padova, Padova Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bozzetto
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Padova, Padova Italy.
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baraldi
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Padova, Padova Italy. Electronic address: silvia.carraro@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carraro
mesh_terms: D000447:Aldehydes / Q000378:metabolism; D001249:Asthma / Q000378:metabolism*; D015415:Biomarkers; D001944:Breath Tests; D002648:Child; D015237:Dinoprost / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000378:metabolism; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007249:Inflammation; D015289:Leukotrienes / Q000378:metabolism; D009566:Nitrates / Q000378:metabolism; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D009573:Nitrites / Q000378:metabolism; D018384:Oxidative Stress
chemical_list: D000447:Aldehydes; D015415:Biomarkers; D015289:Leukotrienes; D009566:Nitrates; D009573:Nitrites; C075750:8-epi-prostaglandin F2alpha; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D015237:Dinoprost; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide
keywords: Asthma; Biomarkers; Children; Exhaled breath condensate