Transcriptional profiles of peripheral eosinophils in COPD and asthma - a preliminary study

The role of eosinophilic inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathogenesis is unknown and is probably different than in asthma. The molecular processes underlying the differences between eosinophils from asthma and COPD have not been studied. The study group included 5 patients with asthma and 4 patients with COPD. The RNA-Seq data analysis identified 26 differentially expressed genes between COPD and asthma (according to adjusted p-value). In total, 6 genes were up-regulated (CCL3L1, CCL4L2, SERPINB2, PRSS21, GPR82) and 20 were down-regulated (e.g. JUN, IFITM3, DUSP1, GNG7, ZNF107, BCL6) in peripheral eosinophils of COPD patients compared to asthma. Biological processes associated with down-regulated genes were cell differentiation, positive regulation of RNA metabolic process. The genes associated with signaling of IL-4 and IL-13 pathway were down-regulated in COPD eosinophils compared to asthma. Peripheral eosinophils from COPD and asthma patients present different transcriptomic profiles suggesting their different function in pathobiology of both obstructive airway diseases. The objective of this study was to compare the transcriptomic profiles of blood eosinophils in COPD and asthma.Eosinophils were isolated from peripheral blood drawn from stable mild-to-moderate COPD and asthma patients. RNA was isolated from eosinophils and was prepared and sequenced using an NGSelect RNA. The prepared libraries were then quality-checked, pooled, and sequenced on an Illumina platform.