Recent patents in allergy and immunology: A quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method for diagnosing asthma and asthma exacerbation

Background: Asthma is diagnosed based on a history of the characteristic symptoms and evidence of expiratory airflow limitation. However, asthma diagnosis using the existing tests is associated with a risk of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spread. In this study, we developed a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)-based asthma diagnosis tool. Methods: We detected nectin-4 in the plasma of patients with asthma using qRT-PCR, explored the relationship of clinical variables. Results: quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that plasma nectin-4 mRNA levels were higher in asthmatics than controls. These results correlated with lung function. Conclusions: Those results suggest that qRT-PCR for nectin-4 may aid asthma diagnosis and monitoring.