Biomarkers in Occupational Asthma

Abstract

Purpose of review: Work-related asthma is a common disorder among adult asthma patients, and in the case of occupational asthma, it is induced by workplace exposures.

Recent findings: Occupational asthma provides an excellent model and benchmark for identifying and testing different allergy or inflammatory biomarkers associated with its inception or progression. Moreover, specific inhalation challenge with the incriminated agent represents an experimental setting to identify and validate potential systemic or local biomarkers. Some biomarkers are mainly blood-borne, while local airway biomarkers are derived from inflammatory or resident cells. Genetic and gene-environment interaction studies also provide an excellent framework to identify relevant profiles associated with the risk of developing these work-related conditions. Despite significant efforts to identify clinically relevant inflammatory and genomic markers for occupational asthma, apart from the documented utility of airway inflammatory biomarkers, it remains elusive to define specific markers or signatures clearly associated with different endpoints or outcomes in occupational asthma.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Genomic biomarkers; Occupational asthma; Work-related asthma.