Plasma antibodies against heat shock protein 70 correlate with the incidence and severity of asthma in a Chinese population.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The heat shock proteins (Hsps) are induced by stresses such as allergic
factors and inflammatory responses in bronchi epithelial cells and therefore may be
detectable in patients with asthma. However, the etiologic link between anti-Hsps
and asthma (its severity and related inflammatory responses such as interleukin-4
and immunoglobulin E) has not been established. We determined whether antibodies against
Hsp60 and Hsp70 were present in patients with asthma and evaluated their associations
with risk and severity of asthma. METHODS: We determined the levels of anti-Hsp60
and anti-Hsp70 by immunoblot and their associations with risk and symptom severity
of asthma in 95 patients with asthma and 99 matched non-symptomatic controls using
multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Compared to the controls, asthma
patients were more likely to have detectable anti-Hsp60 (17.2% vs 5.1%) and anti-Hsp70
(33.7% vs 8.1%) (p < or = 0.001). In particular, the presence of anti-Hsp70 was associated
with a greater than 2 fold risk for asthma (adjusted OR = 2.21; 95% CI = 1.35 approximately
3.59). Furthermore, both anti-Hsp60 and anti-Hsp70 levels were positively correlated
with symptom severity (p < 0.05) as well as interleukin-4 and immunoglobulin E (p
< 0.05). Individuals with antibodies against anti-Hsp60 and anti-Hsp70 were more likely
to have a family history of asthma (p < 0.001) and higher plasma concentrations of
total immunoglobulin E (p = 0.001) and interleukin-4 (p < 0.05) than those without
antibodies. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that anti-Hsp60 and especially anti-Hsp70
correlate with the attacks and severity of asthma. The underlying molecular mechanisms
linking antibodies to heat shock proteins and asthma remain to be investigated.
Type
Journal articleSubject
HumansAsthma
Autoantibodies
Severity of Illness Index
Incidence
Risk Assessment
Risk Factors
Adolescent
Adult
Middle Aged
Child
China
Female
Male
HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17964Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1186/1465-9921-6-18Publication Info
Yang, Miao; Wu, Tangchun; Cheng, Longxian; Wang, Feng; Wei, Qingyi; & Tanguay, Robert
M (2005). Plasma antibodies against heat shock protein 70 correlate with the incidence and severity
of asthma in a Chinese population. Respiratory research, 6(1). pp. 18. 10.1186/1465-9921-6-18. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17964.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Qingyi Wei
Professor in Population Health Sciences
Qingyi Wei, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Medicine, is Associate Director
for Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Co-leader of CCPS and Co-leader of Epidemiology
and Population Genomics (Focus Area 1). He is a professor of Medicine and an internationally
recognized epidemiologist focused on the molecular and genetic epidemiology of head
and neck cancers, lung cancer, and melanoma. His research focuses on biomarkers and
genetic determinants for the DNA repair deficient phenotype and

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info