A simple blood test may soon change the way doctors diagnose and treat asthma, making care more precise, more effective, and potentially more affordable.
Scientists at Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences (KL Krems) and the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Vienna) have developed a molecular “asthma chip” that can identify whether a person has allergic asthma—the most common type of the disease.
Their findings were published in the journal Allergy.
Asthma affects around 300 million people worldwide and remains one of the most challenging chronic lung diseases.
Current treatments are often one-size-fits-all, relying on inhaled corticosteroids and bronchodilators to control symptoms.
In recent years, expensive biologic drugs have been added for more severe cases, but their high cost raises questions about long-term sustainability.
For allergic asthma, however, a proven and much cheaper treatment already exists: allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT).
Until now, what has been missing is an easy and reliable way to identify which patients would benefit most from this therapy.
That’s where the asthma chip comes in. Developed by Dr. Huey-Jy Huang and colleagues in collaboration with MedUni Vienna, the chip contains 63 purified allergen molecules from common airborne sources like pollen, dust mites, animal dander, and mold.
When tested with blood serum samples, the chip can detect whether a patient is sensitized to specific allergens—signs of allergic asthma.
In a large study involving 436 asthma patients from the LEAD (Lung, hEart, sociAl, boDy) cohort, the chip revealed that more than 70 percent of participants had allergic asthma.
These patients tended to be younger, had better lung function, and needed fewer corticosteroids compared with non-allergic patients, even though their asthma symptoms were real and sometimes severe.
“This shows that a large share of adult asthma patients actually have allergic asthma, and we can now identify them quickly and accurately,” explains Professor Rudolf Valenta of MedUni Vienna, one of the study’s senior authors. “That’s important, because allergic asthma can be treated at its root cause, not just managed symptomatically.”
Allergen-specific immunotherapy, or AIT, works by gradually retraining the immune system to tolerate the substances that trigger asthma attacks. Unlike inhalers that only ease symptoms, AIT can change the long-term course of the disease, reducing flare-ups and improving quality of life.
The chip’s use of purified allergen molecules is key. Conventional tests use allergen extracts, which can blur results and confuse true allergies with cross-reactions. The new method avoids this problem, offering a sharper, more personalized picture of a patient’s allergy profile.
With asthma cases rising and health systems under pressure, a tool like this could help doctors target the right treatment to the right patient.
By identifying those who can benefit from immunotherapy, it could spare many patients unnecessary costs from expensive drugs while providing lasting relief.
Researchers hope the asthma chip will soon become part of routine clinical practice, shifting asthma care from general symptom control to tailored, disease-modifying treatment.
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Source: KSR.
