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Association between YKL-40 and asthma: a systematic meta-analysis

  • Sleep Breathing Physiology and Disorders • Review
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Abstract

Purpose

Many studies have shown that chitinase-3-like protein 1 (CHI3L1), also known as YKL-40, is associated with asthma. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the role of serum YKL-40 in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of asthma, severity grading, and determination of disease state.

Methods

The PubMed, Ovid, and Cochrane databases were searched. A total of 17 articles involving 5696 subjects were included in this meta-analysis.

Results

The results showed that the level of YKL-40 was significantly higher in asthmatic patients than in the normal group regardless of age and residential location, and increased with severity and acute exacerbation (p < 0.05). YKL-40 levels were significantly different between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, and also between asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACO) and asthma (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

YKL-40 may act as a potential serological marker for the diagnosis of asthma, assessment of severity, indicator of the disease state, and differential diagnosis of COPD, ACO, and asthma.

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Data availability

All the data can be requested from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Author notes

  1. Yihan Jin and Jie Song contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100700, China

    Yihan Jin, Jie Song, Di Zhang, Jinfang He, Jiakun Zheng, Yanan Zhang, Jintong Li, Yikun Guo, Mengjiao Xu, Xiangfeng Yu, Yanbin Liu, Qinghua Liu & Jun Yan

  2. Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, China

    Fang Xu

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  1. Yihan Jin
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Correspondence to Jun Yan.

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Comment

The quest for a reliable biomarker for asthma, which can clearly confirm the diagnosis, indicate when exacerbations occur and differentiate from other common diseases with similar symptoms, has been so far unanswered.

The meta-analysis done by Yihan Jin et al. explores the role of YKL-40 as a biomarker for asthma. Analysis of 5696 subjects from 17 studies demonstrates the utility of YKL-40 in diagnosis of asthma, in assessing the severity of asthma and asthma exacerbation. YKL-40 demonstrates statistically significant difference between controls and asthmatics. However, its role has still not clearly emerged for differentiating asthma from COPD, where YKL-40 levels are higher, or from asthma COPD overlap (ACO).

This meta-analysis shines light on the important fact that more studies need to be conducted before we can draw conclusions on the relevance of YKL-40 levels in asthma.

Uma Devaraj

Bangalore, India

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Jin, Y., Song, J., Xu, F. et al. Association between YKL-40 and asthma: a systematic meta-analysis. Sleep Breath 26, 1011–1022 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02495-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02495-w

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