• Zuzana Diamant, Ellen Tufvesson, and Leif Bjermer.
• Institute for Clinical Science, Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Skane University Hospital, Lund University, Klinikgatan 18, S-221 85, Lund, Sweden, z.diamant@gems.demon.nl.
• Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2013 Oct 1; 13 (5): 477-86.

AbstractRecognition of asthma as a heterogeneous disease revealed different potential molecular targets and urged the development of targeted, customized treatment modalities. Evidence was provided for different inflammatory subsets of asthma and more recently, further refined to T helper (Th)2-high and Th2-low subphenotypes with different responsiveness to standard and targeted pharmacotherapy. Given these differences in immunology and pathophysiology, proof of concept studies of novel treatment modalities for asthma should be performed in adequate, well-defined phenotypes. In this review, we describe both existing and novel biomarkers of Th2-inflammation in asthma that can be applied to classify asthma subphenotypes in clinical studies and for treatment monitoring.

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