Key result
Nasal cytokines IL-6 and IFN-gamma detect rhinovirus infection whereas lung function and FeNO perform poorly.
Why the study?
Accurate detection of human respiratory viral infections using inflammatory biomarkers and lung function parameters was investigated to explore their potential for infection detection.
Can measurements of inflammatory biomarkers and lung function parameters be used to detect rhinovirus-16 infection in healthy and mildly asthmatic volunteers?
Cohort (n=24)
No
Can measurements of inflammatory biomarkers and lung function parameters be used to detect rhinovirus-16 infection in healthy and mildly asthmatic volunteers?
Effect estimate: AUC 0.6 to 0.95
Cytokines in nasal lavage fluid, but not FeNO or lung function, can moderately to very well discriminate rhinovirus-16 infection status.
Nasal cytokines discriminate rhinovirus infection moderately to excellently; leaves open clinical adoption pending prospective validation.
Accurate detection of human respiratory viral infections is highly topical. We investigated how strongly inflammatory biomarkers (FeNO, eosinophils, neutrophils, and cytokines in nasal lavage fluid) and lung function parameters change upon rhinovirus-16 infection, in order to explore their potential use for infection detection. To this end, within a longitudinal cohort study, healthy and mildly asthmatic volunteers were experimentally inoculated with rhinovirus-16 and time series of these parameters/biomarkers were systematically recorded and compared between the pre- and post-infection phases of the study, which lasted 2 and 1 month/s, respectively. We found that the parameters’/biomarkers’ ability to discriminate between the infected and the uninfected state varied over the observation time period. Consistently over time, the concentration of cytokines in nasal lavage fluid showed moderate to very good discrimination performance, thereby qualifying for disease progression monitoring. On the other hand, lung function and FeNO, while quickly and non-invasively measurable using cheap portable devices (e.g., at airports), performed poorly.
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Sinha et al. (2020) conducted a cohort in Rhinovirus-16 infection (n=24). Experimental rhinovirus-16 inoculation vs. Pre-infection phase (uninfected state) was evaluated on Discrimination accuracy of inflammatory biomarkers and lung function parameters between pre- and post-infection states (AUC 0.6 to 0.95). Concentrations of cytokines in nasal lavage fluid, particularly IL-6 and IFN-gamma, demonstrated moderate to excellent discrimination performance (AUC 0.6-0.95) for detecting rhinovirus-16 infection, whereas lung function and FeNO performed poorly.
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