Exploration of early‐life candidate biomarkers for childhood asthma using antibody arrays

Background Proteomic approaches identifying biomarkers have been applied to asthma to only a very limited extent. Methods With an antibody array (RayBiotech, Norcross, GA, USA), the relative intensity and rank differences of 444 proteins were compared in 24 plasma samples obtained at age 3, 11 from children with and 12 without asthma diagnoses at ages 5 and 9. Protein candidates identified by antibody array were quantitated by ELISA in an enlarged sample. Proteins found to differentiate children with and without asthma were also examined for association with known Year 1 asthma risk factors, eczema, and wheeze. Results In the antibody array, four proteins had rank differences between asthma and non‐asthma groups (FDR