Do men and women experience asthma differently?
Shannon Kay, assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, determines how to make care more personalized.
Shannon Kay was born in Long Island and raised in New York City. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Manhattan College, and completed medical school at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. She then completed internship, residency, and Chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor before coming to Yale as a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellow in 2019.
Asthma is the most prevalent respiratory disease in the world, and it is caused by inflammation in the lungs related to an individual’s genetics and their environment. There are clear differences in the way asthma affects males and females across the lifespan. For example, asthma is more common and more likely to be triggered by allergies in young boys compared to girls. After puberty, asthma becomes more prevalent in females, who are more likely to experience asthma throughout adulthood. Females report changes in their asthma symptoms corresponding with their menstrual cycle, pregnancy, menopause, and taking medications like hormonal contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy. This suggests a hormonal influence on lung inflammation. Importantly, females are more likely to have severe asthma that is less responsive to our current therapies.
In this study, we set out to explore the way asthma affects males and females differently by looking at gene expression levels in blood and respiratory samples. Gene expression is a measurement of which genes from our DNA are being used to make proteins, which gives us a clue about the biology happening in our bodies. We combined studies from across the world to maximize our analysis. Ultimately, we found differences in the expression of 61 genes between males and females with asthma. The expression level of these genes in blood samples correlated with important features including patient-reported symptoms, lung function measurements, and markers of inflammation. Our findings suggest that these changes in gene expression may contribute to sex differences in asthma.
We hope to build on this work by studying hormonal effects in the lungs, evaluating differences in response to newer asthma medications called biologics, and exploring the intersection between asthma and other conditions like obesity. Ultimately, we hope to contribute to more personalized medical care for all patients with asthma.
Read More:
[ATS Journals] - Sex-biased Gene Expression Underlies Immune Dysfunction in Asthma
