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. 2024 Oct;28(20):e70110.
doi: 10.1111/jcmm.70110.

Transcriptional profiles of peripheral eosinophils in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma-An exploratory study

Katarzyna Mycroft  1 , Małgorzata Proboszcz  1 , Magdalena Paplińska-Goryca  1 , Rafał Krenke  1 , Katarzyna Górska  1
Affiliations

Transcriptional profiles of peripheral eosinophils in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma-An exploratory study

Katarzyna Mycroft et al. J Cell Mol Med. 2024 Oct.

Abstract

The role of eosinophilic inflammation in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains ambiguous and likely differs from its role in asthma. The molecular processes underlying the differences between eosinophils from asthma and COPD have not been sufficiently studied. The objective of this study was to compare the transcriptomic profiles of blood eosinophils in COPD and asthma. Eosinophils were isolated from peripheral blood drawn from stable mild-to-moderate COPD and asthma patients. RNA was isolated from eosinophils and sequenced using an NGSelect RNA. The prepared libraries were sequenced on an Illumina platform. The study group included five patients with asthma and four patients with COPD. The RNA-Seq data analysis identified 26 differentially expressed genes between COPD and asthma (according to adjusted p-value). In total, 6 genes were upregulated (e.g. CCL3L1, CCL4L2, GPR82) and 20 were downregulated (e.g. JUN, IFITM3, DUSP1, GNG7) in peripheral eosinophils of COPD patients compared to asthma. The genes associated with signalling of IL-4 and IL-13 pathways were downregulated in COPD eosinophils compared to asthma. In conclusion, blood eosinophils from COPD and asthma patients present different transcriptomic profiles suggesting their different function in pathobiology of both obstructive airway diseases. These differences might indicate the direction of the search of targeted therapy in COPD.

Keywords: COPD; IL‐13; RNA‐Seq; asthma; blood; eosinophil; transcriptomic analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Dot plots showing the expression of CCL3L1 and CCL4L2 in COPD and asthma patients.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
(A, B) Gene ontology analysis of the downregulated genes selected among 10% of genes with the lowest p‐value. The bar chart showing the GO terms for biological processes (A) and molecular function. (B) The x‐axis represents the fold change. (C) The REACTOME significantly enriched pathways among the top 10% of genes (up‐ and downregulated analysed separately). Analysis according to the adjusted p‐value.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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