Gene signature profiles in whole blood cells from severe asthma patinets treated with benralizumab

Severe asthma is a clinically and physiologically heterogeneous disease. Benralizumab is a monoclonal antibody which binds the alpha chain of the interleukin-5 receptor and used for severe eosinophilic asthma worldwide. However, not all eosinophilic asthma patients will benefit from benralizumab due to heterogeneity of this disease. Therefore, we performed comprehensive gene expression analysis of whole blood cells that examine severe asthma disease heterogeneity in response to benralizumab. This study is the first to perform comprehensive transcriptome analysis of whole blood cells to identify transcriptomic endotypes of severe asthma clusters that correlate with benralizumab response. The identified transcriptomic endotypes of severe asthma clusters are associated with gene signatures of eosinophils and neutrophilis. Overall design: We prospectively studied 41 patients with severe eosinophilic asthma treated with benralizumab for 4 months. Whole blood cells for gene expression analysis were collected at baseline and 4 months after starting of benralizumab treatment, and RNA-seq was performed. Whole blood was collected with PAXgene blood RNA tubes (Qiagen). Total 82 RNA samples from whole blood cells were obtained, 41 samples at baseline and 41 samples 4 months after treatment.