Circulating micro RNAs, novel biomarkers for prediction of preschool wheeze and subsequent asthma

Many young children wheeze (whistle) when they breathe. In some, such wheezing becomes persistent and they may then develop asthma. Asthma is a serious condition in children that can stop the lungs working properly. Currently, there is no way to diagnose asthma in very young children so it is difficult to know which wheezy young children will develop asthma. Breathing tests such as those used in older children or adults are not easy to do in very young children. Therefore, there is an urgent unmet need to produce a test which can accurately predict which wheezy children are more likely to develop asthma as they become older.
Small molecules called microRNAs control many functions within our own cells at a genetic level. They could be a good choice for as a diagnostic marker that leads to the development of a new test to predict and diagnose childhood asthma. These molecules can be found in many body fluids making it possible to develop a simple test which can be developed to detect them in a small amount of blood that could be used in small children. Our previous research found that some of these small molecules could be used to diagnose asthma in adults. However, nobody has explored if these small molecules can be used to show which preschool children develop wheezing and which wheezy pre-school children will develop asthma.
Therefore, this study will look for these small molecules in blood samples of pre-schoolers and find out how they are associated with developing pre-school wheeze and later asthma. From this we will identify panels of these small molecules present in only those wheezy pre-school children or only in those who later develop asthma.
We will use cutting edge technology to profile these small molecules and use our expertise to develop them into a new test that can predict the likelihood of a child developing wheeze or adult asthma.