New biomarkers in asthma: chemokines and chitinase-like proteins

Asthma is characterized by airway inflammation and tissue remodeling.

Some new asthma biomarkers include:

- chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 17
- chitinase-like protein YKL-40

Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 17 (CCL17) is a small cytokine that is also known as thymus and activation regulated chemokine (TARC). CCL17 binds and induces chemotaxis in T cells and elicits its effects by interacting with the chemokine receptor CCR4.

References:

Novel biomarkers in asthma: chemokines and chitinase-like proteins. Mechanisms of allergy and adult asthma. Current Opinion in Allergy & Clinical Immunology. 9(1):60-66, February 2009. Hartl, Dominik; Lee, Chun G; Da Silva, Carla A; Chupp, Geoffrey L; Elias, Jack A.
CCL17, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

YKL-40 could identify patients with COPD who have an increased risk of dying. MedPageToday, 2010.

Biomarkers of asthma: Increased serum fibroblast growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor, stem cell growth factor-beta http://goo.gl/vsOlT
Chitinase 3-like 1 protein (YKL-40) Increases Bronchial Smooth Muscle Remodeling in Patients with Asthma http://goo.gl/Rwhsy