A novel whole blood gene expression signature for asthma, dermatitis and rhinitis multimorbidity in BAMSE cohort

Allergic diseases correspond to a broad range of hypersensitivity reactions, often occurring as co-morbidities. Investigation of the molecular basis of allergy is a challenge because of its highly heterogeneous nature. We combined large-scale and high-throughput gene expression technology and systems biology approaches to retrieve relevant biomarkers and signalling pathways. Gene expression data was generated and analysed from whole blood of a total of 256 subjects provided by the swedish BAMSE cohort of teenagers in relation to allergy status (presence of one or multiple diseases among asthma, eczema and/or rhinitis). The data production and analysis pipeline includes Affymetrix HTA 2.0 Genechips from quality-controlled RNA and transformed and biotin-labelled cRNA using restricted randomization and replicate reference sample to control and minimize batch effect, and pre-processing with RMA normalization. characteristics: gender -> 1: male ; 0: female characteristics: age -> in months characteristics: allergy/asthma/dermatitis/rhinitis -> 1: yes, 0: no