AUTHOR=Singh Tanusha , Bello Braimoh , Jeebhay Mohamed F. TITLE=Characterizing Inflammatory Cell Asthma Associated Phenotypes in Dental Health Workers Using Cytokine Profiling JOURNAL=Frontiers in Allergy VOLUME=2 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/allergy/articles/10.3389/falgy.2021.747591 DOI=10.3389/falgy.2021.747591 ISSN=2673-6101 ABSTRACT=
Cytokines elicit a pro-inflammatory response by modifying the airway microenvironment in patients with acute or chronic asthma. The expression pattern of several distinct cytokines could be a useful discriminator in asthma. This study aimed to identify asthma subject groupings based on common inflammatory patterns and to determine the relationship between these identified patterns and asthma-associated clinical indices. A sub-group of 76 dental healthcare workers (HCWs) identified from a larger cross-sectional study of 454 dental HCWs in five dental institutions were evaluated further. A self-administered questionnaire elicited the health and employment history of subjects. Sera were analyzed for atopic status, latex sensitization, and 12 cytokines (IL-1β, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12p70, eotaxin, GM-CSF, TNF-α). Pre and post-bronchodilator spirometry was performed on all HCWs. Data clustering and factor analysis were used to identify inflammatory cluster patterns of cytokines. Associations between the cytokine cluster groupings and relevant asthma-associated clinical indices were determined using multivariate logistic regression. The classification of asthma subtype based on cytokine patterns demonstrated both eosinophilic and neutrophilic inflammatory responses. Four phenotypically distinct subgroups relating to the severity of inflammation (acute or chronic) of the cell types were identified. Cytokine determinants for the neutrophilic subtype included IL-1β, 6, 8, 10, 12p70, and TNF-α whereas for the eosinophilic subtype these included IL-3, 4, 5, 7, eotaxin, and GM-CSF. The multivariate models showed a significant association between work-related chest symptoms and all four inflammatory patterns. However, stronger associations were observed for the acute neutrophilic (OR = 6.00,