The role of 14-3-3β in acute asthma in children and analysis of the risk factors for asthma exacerbation

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the role of 14-3-3β in acute asthma exacerbations in children and analyze the risk factors for asthma exacerbations.

Methods

This study recruited 101 children with acute asthma exacerbations, 101 children with stable asthma, and 65 healthy children. Serum 14-3-3β was compared among the three groups. Factors such as asthma family history, skin prick test, serum-specific IgE test, coinfections, and clinical indicators (FeNO, FEV1, white blood cells, eosinophils, and serum IgE level) were compared between the asthma groups. Risk factors associated with acute asthma exacerbations were identified using multivariate logistic regression models. ROC curve was drawn to determine the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 14-3-3β.

Results

Serum 14-3-3β was significantly greater in the acute asthma group than in the stable asthma and control groups. Serum 14-3-3β was higher in severe acute asthma group than in mild-moderate asthma group. There were no significant differences in serum 14-3-3β levels between stable asthma and control groups (p > .05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that serum 14-3-3β level, FeNO, coinfection, and FEV1 z-score significantly increased the odds of acute asthma exacerbations in children. The optimal 14-3-3β cutoff value (39.79 ng/mL), had a sensitivity of 69.3% and specificity of 94.1% for predicting acute asthma exacerbations.

Conclusions

14-3-3β is elevated in children with acute exacerbations of asthma, and increases with exacerbation severity. 14-3-3β, FeNO, FEV1, and coinfection could be independent risk factors for predicting asthma exacerbations. The optimal 14-3-3β cutoff value for predicting asthma exacerbations was 39.79 ng/mL.

Keywords:

• 14-3-3β
• asthma exacerbation
• biomarkers
• pediatrics
• risk factor

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Joint Open Research Fund of Henan Key Laboratory of Child Brain Injury and Henan Pediatric Clinical Research Center and the Project of Henan Province Science and Technology Tackling for supporting this study.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Data availability statement

All data analyzed during this study are included in this file and are publicly available in the Figshare database (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24763683).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [Joint Open Research Fund of Henan Key Laboratory of Child Brain Injury and Henan Pediatric Clinical Research Center] under Grant [Project Number: KFKT2021005]; [Project of Henan Province Science and Technology Tackling] under Grant [Project Number: 222102310689]; and [Project of Henan Province Science and Technology Tackling] under Grant [Project Number: 232102310323].