Summary

Eligibility
for people ages 18 years and up (full criteria)
Healthy Volunteers
healthy people welcome
Location
at San Francisco, California
Dates
study started
completion around
Principal Investigator
by John Fahy
Headshot of John Fahy
John Fahy

Description

Summary

This study is designed to characterize subjects in terms of the nature and severity of their asthma and in terms of conditions that may alter the clinical expression of asthma. Some features will be obtained in all subjects. These include a medical history and baseline lung function tests. This characterization forms the basis for our database that facilitates research protocols.

Details

The purpose of this study is to generate a cohort of well-characterized asthmatic subjects as a resource for recruitment of asthmatic subjects and healthy controls in clinical studies and clinical trials in the UCSF Airway Clinical Research Center. The UCSF Airway Clinical Research Center (ACRC) conducts multiple clinical research studies in asthma funded by the NIH, foundations, and industry. We have a broad range of research interests, but we have specific interests in mechanism-oriented clinical studies and specific expertise in biospecimen collection, biobanking, and biospecimen analysis. Our model is to have multiple studies recruiting simultaneously, and this means that we need well-organized recruitment and database systems.

Additionally, we aim to characterize asthmatic subjects in multiple domains, including disease severity, airway inflammation subtypes, and mucus subtypes. Asthma is a heterogeneous disease in its clinical presentation and in its underlying cellular and molecular phenotypes. To explore cellular and molecular phenotypes of asthma, we will analyze induced sputum for cell types and gene expression, with a focus on Th2 inflammation pathways and innate and adaptive immune cells that drive Th2 inflammation. Detailed cellular analysis of sputum is possible but requires that multiple sputum samples be collected for processing in multiple different ways, including by cytocentrifugation, FACS analysis, and by formalin fixation and paraffin embedding of sputum cell pellets. We are also studying mucus phenotypes of asthma using methods of rheology, which needs to be done on fresh sputum.

Keywords

Asthma, Asthmatics

Eligibility

You can join if…

Open to people ages 18 years and up

  • Age 18 years and older

You CAN'T join if...

  • History of lung disease other than asthma
  • An upper respiratory tract infection or an exacerbation of their asthma within the preceding 4-6 weeks.
  • Persons who have smoked > 5 cigarettes per month and have a total pack-year smoking history > 10 packs.

Location

  • UCSF
    San Francisco California 94143 United States

Lead Scientist at UCSF

  • John Fahy
    I am a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the Department of Medicine at UCSF. I direct a research program in asthma and other airway diseases that is human centered and focused on uncovering disease mechanisms and improving treatment.

Details

Status
currently not accepting new patients, but might later
Start Date
Completion Date
(estimated)
Sponsor
University of California, San Francisco
Links
Airway Clinical Research Center website
ID
NCT01508078
Study Type
Observational
Participants
About 259 people participating
Last Updated