Effect and mechanism of Allergen Specific Immunotherapy (AIT) on small
airway dysfunction in children with asthma
Abstract
Background: Small airway dysfunction (SAD) is a common problem in
childhood asthma patients despite of asthma control therapy. The
effectiveness and mechanism of allergen specific immunotherapy(AIT) on
small airway dysfunction in children with asthma remains unclear. The
purpose of this study is to investigate the the effectiveness of AIT on
SAD and mechanism underline with special focus on basophil.
Methods: 65 mild to moderate asthma children under regular ICS
treatment for more than one year, but their FEF 75
remained below the 65% of predicted and with positive results of serum
Der p or der f were enrolled. Asthma children underwent house dust mite
(HDM) subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) treatment for 6 months. Asthma
control and lung function were evaluated every three months during HDM
SCIT treatment. Basophil activation test was carried out before and
after HDM SCIT treatment. RNA-sequence were performed in isolated
basophil from peripheral blood after 6 mionths of HDM SCIT treatment
followed by GO term and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis between
patients with or without HDM SCIT treatment. Results: The
patients’ childhood asthma control test(C-ACT) scores have risen above
the baseline value after 3 and 6 months’ treatment. The percentage of
patients with complete asthma control was also increased from 52.4% to
75.8% (after 3 months of AIT treatment) and 73.7% (after 6 months of
AIT treatment). Meanwhile, the percentage of uncontrolled asthmatic
patients (C-ACT score<20) dropped from 9.52% to 3 % and 0% after 3
and 6 months’ treatment of AIT, respectively. AIT treatment also
improved lung function parameters such as FEV 1/FVC, FEF
75, FEF 50 and MMEF after the first 3
months’ therapy (p<0.05). FEF 75 values showed a highly
significant, gradual and persistent increase (from 49.55 ± 1.27% at
baseline to 65.56 ± 2.89 % and 71.89 ± 2.64 % after 3 months’ and
6months’ therapy, respectively). 24 of 32 patients were out of SAD after
6 months’ treatment. BAT results revealed that AIT treatment
significantly reduced basophil activity to HDM in vitro challenge from
baseline. GO term and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of basophil
revealed that downregulated genes mainly involved in immune cell
activation, antigen presenting procedure and Th cell differentiation.
Conclusions: Our current study demonstrated that HDM AIT not
only improved asthma symptom and clinic parameters, but also increased
lung fuction parameters, especially improved SAD measured by FEF
75, FEF 50 and MMEF. We also
demonstrated that HDM AIT reduced basophil activity. RNA-sequence of
basophil revealed the inhibiton of phagocytosis and phagosome pathway
which is required for the APC function of basophils and therefore may
affect the polarization of Th2 cell differentiation. However, further in
vivo and animal study are required to confirm those results.