Nasal interleukin 25 as a novel biomarker for patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and airway hypersensitiveness: A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the upper airway and is tightly linked with airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and asthma. However, the surrogate biomarkers for indicating AHR and asthma in patients with CRSwNP remain elusive.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the surrogate biomarkers for indicating AHR and asthma in patients with CRSwNP.

METHODS: In this study, sinonasal tissues were collected from 42 patients with CRSwNP (asthma, n = 17; asymptomatic AHR, n = 11; non-AHR, n = 14), 11 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps (CRSsNP), and 13 controls. The protein and messenger RNA levels of interleukin (IL) 25 and other cytokines in nasal polyp (NP) and control sinonasal tissues were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and multiplex immunoassay, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were performed to assess the clinical relevance of IL-25.

RESULTS: We found that the protein and messenger RNA levels of IL-25 were significantly increased in NP tissues compared with the control sinonasal tissues from patients with CRSwNP, patients with CRSsNP, and controls. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that the nasal IL-25 protein level and nasal and blood eosinophil counts were independent risk factors for AHR in patients with CRSwNP. According to receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, nasal tissue IL-25 had a sensitivity of 91.4% and a specificity of 62.8% (area under the curve, 0.845) at the cutoff level of 5 pg/μL for indicating AHR in this CRSwNP cohort.

CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that IL-25 was significantly increased in NP tissues and may be considered as the molecular indicator for AHR in patients with CRSwNP.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02110654.