Cluster Analysis of Plasma Cytokines and Neutrophil Transcriptomic Profiling of Children with Asthma in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

We determined whether we could identify clusters of children with critical asthma by plasma cytokine concentration. Differences in gene expression between the two clusters were analyzed using a targeted Nanostring immunology array. We performed a single-center, prospective, observational cohort study of 64 children ages 6 – 17 years admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit for an asthma attack between July 2019 to February 2021. Neutrophils were isolated from children and mRNA was analyzed using a targeted Nanostring immunology array. Network analysis of the differentially expressed transcripts for the clusters defined by plasma cytokine concentrations was performed.