Unveiling childhood asthma: Exploring biomarkers, zinc, and beyond

Abstract

This editorial discusses a case-control study by Ibrahim et al, published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics. Childhood bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammatory respiratory disease. It was found that an increase in oxidative stress leads to a decrease in antioxidants causing oxidative damage to mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes resulting in the inflammation of the airway, hypersecretion of mucus causing a cascade of clinical manifestations ranging from recurrent episodes of coughing, wheezing, and breathlessness to shortness of breath. Since oxidative stress mediates the inflammatory response in asthma, the supplementation of anti-oxidants can be one strategy to manage this disease. Zinc is one such antioxidant that has attracted much attention about asthma and airway inflammation. Zinc is a crucial trace element for human metabolism that helps to regulate gene expression, enzyme activity, and protein structure. Apart from zinc, free serum ferritin levels are also elevated in case of inflammation. Several previous studies found that ferritin levels may also help determine the pathology of disease and predict prognosis in addition to tracking disease activity. However, this study's results were different from the findings of the previous studies and the zinc levels did not show a significant difference between asthmatic children and non-asthmatic children but ferritin levels were significantly high in asthmatic children as compared to the controls. Hence, the possible role of the biochemical nutritional assessment including zinc and ferritin as biomarkers for asthma severity should be assessed in the future.

Keywords: Asthma; Biomarker; Children; Zinc; Ferritin; Immunoglobulin E

Core Tip: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the respiratory system, more common in children than adults. The disorder is the most common cause of emergency department visits, absenteeism from school, and hospitalization in children. The etiology of asthma is not clear but various triggering agents including environmental, nutritional, and genetic factors may have their roles. Previous studies found that trace elements with antioxidant properties such as zinc can be effective in the treatment of asthma. Apart from zinc, serum ferritin, and Ig E levels are also elevated in such children. Hence, further studies assessing these biomarkers are needed in the future.