Exploring Endotypes in Chronic Rhinosinusitis (ExpRess): Protocol for a cohort study

BACKGROUND: Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) affects approximately 1 in 10 UK adults and impacts quality of life quality of life significantly. Response to treatment may be driven by individual CRS endotypes and therefore work to delineate biomarker clusters that may separate responders from non-responders is needed. The ongoing MACRO three-arm parallel-group trial randomises adult CRS patients to endoscopic sinus surgery, macrolide therapy or placebo. AIM: This study aims to correlate CRS endotypes with clinical parameters from the ongoing MACRO trial, including olfactory function and outcomes in terms of response to treatment using core biomarkers sets. METHODS: Adult CRS patients enrolled into the MACRO trial will be recruited from participating UK otorhinolaryngology departments. Nasal tissue samples and swabs will be obtained in theatre or clinic from patients randomised to all three trial arms. Nasal tissue will be analysed with multiplex electrochemiluminescence for 32 cytokines including IL-5, IL-13, IgE and periostin. Bacterial swabs will be analysed using illumina miSeq 16S amplicon sequencing. Mean expression for each biomarker will be reported for treatment responder and non-responder groups. Correlation of biomarkers with MACRO trial outcome data such as endoscopic evaluation scores and quality-of-life improvement scores will be reported. DISCUSSION: Defining clear endotypes in CRS will contribute to refining patient pathways for the efficient use of clinical resources. This work may lay the groundwork for future studies to predict which patients might respond to medical or surgical therapy.