U-BIOPRED is a European Union consortium of 20 academic institutions, 11 pharmaceutical
companies and six patient organisations with the objective of improving the understanding
of asthma disease mechanisms using a systems biology approach.This cross-sectional
assessment of adults with severe asthma, mild/moderate asthma and healthy controls
from 11 European countries consisted of analyses of patient-reported outcomes, lung
function, blood and airway inflammatory measurements.Patients with severe asthma (nonsmokers,
n=311; smokers/ex-smokers, n=110) had more symptoms and exacerbations compared to
patients with mild/moderate disease (n=88) (2.5 exacerbations versus 0.4 in the preceding
12 months; p<0.001), with worse quality of life, and higher levels of anxiety and
depression. They also had a higher incidence of nasal polyps and gastro-oesophageal
reflux with lower lung function. Sputum eosinophil count was higher in severe asthma
compared to mild/moderate asthma (median count 2.99% versus 1.05%; p=0.004) despite
treatment with higher doses of inhaled and/or oral corticosteroids.Consistent with
other severe asthma cohorts, U-BIOPRED is characterised by poor symptom control, increased
comorbidity and airway inflammation, despite high levels of treatment. It is well
suited to identify asthma phenotypes using the array of "omic" datasets that are at
the core of this systems medicine approach.
