Eur Respir Rev. 2026 Jan 14;35(179):240286. doi: 10.1183/16000617.0286-2024. Print 2026 Jan.

ABSTRACT

Despite recent advances, the underlying mechanisms of the development and progression of many chronic respiratory diseases remain to be elucidated. Factors such as heterogeneity and complexity of human diseases and difficulty interpreting large datasets hinder research into chronic respiratory diseases. Omics assesses the changes in specific biological entities, such as mRNA expression, epigenetics/epigenomics, genomics, proteomics, metagenomics and metabolomics, and provides valuable insights into the roles of these processes in chronic respiratory diseases. High-throughput omics at bulk, single-cell and spatial levels empower the exploration of disease-related changes through untargeted data-driven statistical methods. Multi-omics is the exploration and integration of multiple biological processes, which compared to a single-omics, can provide a substantially greater and more holistic overview of the pathogenic mechanisms that underpin complex diseases. Multi-omics analysis can comprehensively characterise the mechanisms that drive chronic respiratory diseases, capturing unique biological signatures and cellular interactions at different omics levels. Use of these methods has begun to identify key factors and biomarkers in chronic respiratory diseases. Here, we review current omics approaches and highlight recent advances in respiratory research achieved using multi-omics and integrative methods. Our review provides a valuable resource for researchers and clinicians in this area.

PMID:41534886 | DOI:10.1183/16000617.0286-2024

Transl Cancer Res. 2025 Jun 30;14(6):3846-3859. doi: 10.21037/tcr-2025-272. Epub 2025 Jun 13.

ABSTRACT

Liquid biopsy has become a research focus and a hotspot of product development in cancer screening. With the rapid development of molecular biology technology, many new markers have been identified and developed in cancer screening tests in recent years. This article reviews the development of novel liquid biopsy-based markers in cancer screening, including methylation, hydroxymethylation, mutation, copy number variation, and microRNA (miRNA), with specific focuses on clinical trials and studies from approved cancer screening assays or tests under development in China. Studies on screening of lung cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, and multiple cancers (pan-cancer screening) are reviewed and summarized. Liquid biopsy techniques detecting novel markers show great potential in the early screening of cancers, but still face challenges in sensitivity, specificity, productization, standardization, and cost-effectiveness. The emerging pan-cancer screening represents a direction of high-throughput and multiple cancer simultaneous screening, while it still needs optimization in detection performance and organ-specific recognition. Multi-omics integration analysis, artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted diagnosis, and large-scale prospective clinical studies will become important development steps in this field. Through a systematic review of the relevant literature, this paper describes in detail the development of new liquid biopsy technology, new progress in the field of cancer early screening, clinical application status, and future research direction. The review provides some useful insights into the future selection of early screening technology, the formulation of clinical research or trial protocols, and the balance between performance and cost.

PMID:40687260 | PMC:PMC12268391 | DOI:10.21037/tcr-2025-272

Animals (Basel). 2025 Jan 13;15(2):200. doi: 10.3390/ani15020200.

ABSTRACT

Asthma has been extensively studied in humans and animals, but the molecular mechanisms underlying asthma in Meishan pigs, a breed with distinct genetic and physiological characteristics, remain elusive. Understanding these mechanisms could provide insights into veterinary medicine and human asthma research. We investigated asthma pathogenesis in Meishan pigs through transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of blood samples taken during autumn and winter. Asthma in Meishan pigs is related to inflammation, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle disorders. Related genes include CXCL10, CCL8, CCL22, CCL21, OLR1, and ACKR1, while metabolites include succinic acid, riboflavin-5-phosphate, and fumaric acid. Transcriptomic sequencing was performed on panting and normal Meishan pigs, and differentially expressed genes underwent functional enrichment screening. Metabolomic analysis revealed differential metabolites and pathways between groups. Combined analyses indicated that lung inflammation is influenced by genetic, allergenic, and environmental factors disrupting oxidative phosphorylation in lung mitochondria, affecting the TCA cycle. Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, glutathione S-transferases, arginase 1 and RORC in immune regulation, the Notch pathway, YPEL4 in cell proliferation, and MARCKS in airway mucus secretion play roles in asthma pathogenesis. This study highlights that many cytokines and signaling pathways contribute to asthma. Further studies are needed to elucidate their complex interactions.

PMID:39858200 | PMC:PMC11759154 | DOI:10.3390/ani15020200