Exhaled small RNA biomarkers to detect and monitor airway disease

PROJECT NARRATIVE Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are each debilitating airway disorders, which require development of early diagnosis and intervention. We have interrogated exhaled breath condensate (EBC), and demonstrated that we can detect microRNAs, measurable by both PCR-based methods and by next generation sequencing, and demonstrated the presence of small exhaled exosomes - encapsulating nanoparticles - that have potential to provide precise lung tissue-specific biomarkers. The next phase of our work, proposed in this R33 project, is to technically refine our optimized molecular approaches, and to then evaluate the identification of asthma/COPD-specific exhaled small/microRNA biomarkers for diagnosis and with disease exacerbations. The intent is to establish the basis for a multi-institutional prospective cohort study of exhaled small nucleic acid biomarkers for early detection and monitoring of these two common lung disorders.