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This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and the European Regional Development Funds from the European Union (MICIU/AEI/FEDER, UE, SAF2017-83417R) to M.P.-Y. and F.L.-D. This study was also supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (AC15/00015 and AC15/00058), through Strategic Action for Health Research (AES) and European Community (EC) within the Active and Assisted Living (AAL) Programme framework, and the SysPharmPedia grant from the ERACoSysMed 1st Joint Transnational Call from the European Union under the Horizon 2020 to M.P.-Y. and O.S., M.P.-Y and J.V. were funded by ISCIII (CB06/06/1088). M.P.-Y. was also supported by the Ramon y Cajal Program by the MICIU (RYC-2015-17205). EH-L was funded by a fellowship from the MICIU (PRE2018-083837).

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The Genomics and Metagenomics of Asthma Severity (GEMAS) Study: Rationale and Design

Publicated to:Journal Of Personalized Medicine. 10 (3): - 2020-09-01 10(3), DOI: 10.3390/jpm10030123

Authors: Perez-Garcia, Javier; Hernandez-Perez, Jose M.; Gonzalez-Perez, Ruperto; Sardon, Olaia; Martin-Gonzalez, Elena; Espuela-Ortiz, Antonio; Mederos-Luis, Elena; Callero, Ariel; Herrera-Luis, Esther; Corcuera, Paula; Sanchez-Machin, Inmaculada; Poza-Guedes, Paloma; Gonzalez Garcia, Luis Manuel; Ramirez-Martin, Purificacion; Perez-Negrin, Lorenzo; Izaguirre-Flores, Hemily; Barrios-Recio, Javier; Perez-Rodriguez, Eva; Alcoba-Florez, Julia; Canas, Jose A.; Rodrigo Munoz, Jose M.; del Pozo, Victoria; Korta-Murua, Javier; Perez Mendez, Lina I.; Hernandez-Ferrer, Mariano; Villar, Jesus; Lorenzo-Diaz, Fabian; Pino-Yanes, Maria;

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Abstract

Asthma exacerbations are a major contributor to the global disease burden, but no significant predictive biomarkers are known. The Genomics and Metagenomics of Asthma Severity (GEMAS) study aims to assess the role of genomics and the microbiome in severe asthma exacerbations. Here, we present the design of GEMAS and the characteristics of patients recruited from March 2018 to March 2020. Different biological samples and demographic and clinical variables were collected from asthma patients recruited by allergy and pulmonary medicine units in several hospitals from Spain. Cases and controls were defined by the presence/absence of severe asthma exacerbations in the past year (oral corticosteroid use, emergency room visits, and/or asthma-related hospitalizations). A total of 137 cases and 120 controls were recruited. After stratifying by recruitment location (i.e., Canary Islands and Basque Country), cases and controls did not differ for most demographic and clinical variables (p> 0.05). However, cases showed a higher proportion of characteristics inherent to asthma exacerbations (impaired lung function, severe disease, uncontrolled asthma, gastroesophageal reflux, and use of asthma medications) compared to controls (p< 0.05). Similar results were found after stratification by recruitment unit. Thereby, asthma patients enrolled in GEMAS are balanced for potential confounders and have clinical characteristics that support the phenotype definition. GEMAS will improve the knowledge of potential biomarkers of asthma exacerbations.

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