A study has identified that the interaction between sphingolipids and steroids drives an individual's asthma risk profile. Researchers suggest that a ratio-based approach using these substances is biologically meaningful and robust, making it suitable for development into a practical and cost-effective clinical test.
These findings represent a significant step toward precision medicine for asthma. A clinical assay derived from these ratios could be readily implemented in standard laboratories to help clinicians identify patients who appear stable but possess underlying metabolic imbalances.
The researchers emphasize that further validation is necessary before the test can be utilized in clinical practice. This includes additional studies on asthma patients, direct clinical trials, and cost-effectiveness analyses.
The study was a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Mass General Brigham in the USA. Funding support came from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the Swedish Research Council, and the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.