American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2021
Observational StudyUrinary Leukotriene E4 and Prostaglandin D2 Metabolites Increase in Adult and Childhood Severe Asthma Characterized by Type-2 Inflammation.
Rationale: New approaches are needed to guide personalized treatment of asthma. Objectives: To test if urinary eicosanoid metabolites can direct asthma phenotyping. Methods: Urinary metabolites of prostaglandins (PGs), cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLTs), and isoprostanes were quantified in the U-BIOPRED (Unbiased Biomarkers for the Prediction of Respiratory Diseases Outcomes) study including 86 adults with mild-to-moderate asthma (MMA), 411 with severe asthma (SA), and 100 healthy control participants. ⋯ These type 2 (T2) asthma associations were reproduced in the follow-up visit of the U-BIOPRED study and were found to be as sensitive to detect T2 inflammation as the established biomarkers. Conclusions: Monitoring of urinary eicosanoids can identify T2 asthma and introduces a new noninvasive approach for molecular phenotyping of adult and adolescent asthma. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01976767).
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2021
DREADD Approach to Treatment of Sleep Disordered Breathing.
Rationale: Obstructive sleep apnea is recurrent upper airway obstruction caused by a loss of upper airway muscle tone during sleep. The main goal of our study was to determine if designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADD) could be used to activate the genioglossus muscle as a potential novel treatment strategy for sleep apnea. We have previously shown that the prototypical DREADD ligand clozapine-N-oxide increased pharyngeal diameter in mice expressing DREADD in the hypoglossal nucleus. ⋯ Measurements and Main Results: Compared with control, J60 increased genioglossus tonic activity by greater than sixfold and tongue uptake of 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose by 1.5-fold. J60 increased pharyngeal patency and relieved upper airway obstruction during non-REM sleep. Conclusions: We conclude that following intralingual administration of AAV9-DREADD, J60 can activate the genioglossus muscle and improve pharyngeal patency and breathing during sleep.