Recent patents in allergy and immunology: A quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction method for diagnosing asthma and asthma exacerbation

BACKGROUND: Asthma is diagnosed based on a history of the characteristic symptoms and evidence of expiratory airflow limitation. However, asthma diagnosis using the existing tests is associated with a risk of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spread. In this study, we developed a quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR)‐based asthma diagnosis tool. METHODS: We detected nectin‐4 in the plasma of patients with asthma using qRT‐PCR, explored the relationship of clinical variables. RESULTS: quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction revealed that plasma nectin‐4 mRNA levels were higher in asthmatics than controls. These results correlated with lung function. CONCLUSIONS: Those results suggest that qRT‐PCR for nectin‐4 may aid asthma diagnosis and monitoring.