Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis of blood paediatric samples from the U-BIOPRED study identifies oxidative stress association with asthma severity

Background: Many children with asthma exhibit uncontrolled symptoms despite inhaled corticosteroid therapy. The molecular pathways linked to this phenotype are unknown. Aim: To investigate gene expression in paediatric severe and moderate/mild asthma blood samples. Methods: Gene expression analysis was applied on severe and mild asthma samples from pre- and school-age children (SApre,N=62; MApre,N=42; SAsc,N=75 and MAsc,N=37). Gene network analysis (WGCNA) was applied separately on the pre- and school-age data. Obtained gene modules were compared with the Jaccard Index. Results: No genes weresignificantly differentially-expressed in SA versus MA asthma in the two age groups (FDR Conclusion: WGCNA implicates mitochondrial oxidative stress in early onset severe asthma that needs further investigation.