Sphingosine-1-Phosphate: Biomarker, Contributor, or Target for Asthma?

Asthma is a complex and heterogeneous airway disease, since environmental and genetic factors have an effect on both susceptibility and severity of the disease.1 Due to the inherent complexity of the disease, defining asthma phenotypes, as well as endotypes that combine clinical phenotypes with a distinct pathological mechanism, is necessary to elucidate the pathogenic mechanism of asthma and to develop targeted therapeutic strategies based on their mechanisms.2 Systematic analysis of metabolites (metabolomics) has been used to classify the heterogeneous phenotypes and endotypes of asthma because metabolic alterations may reflect pathophysiologic changes encompassing gene-to-environment interactions.3 Metabolic changes in asthmatic patients may be examined to detect bioactive metabolites as pathogenic mediators as well as biomarkers of asthma.4 Sphingolipid metabolic changes represent target molecules as pathogenic and genetic susceptibility factors