Association of serum Interleukin-13 and arginase-1 with disease severity and control in patients with asthma: A biomarker-based study
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Abstract
Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous chronic inflammatory airway disease characterized by variable clinical severity and control status. Among these, Interleukin-13 (IL-13) and arginase-1 have emerged as potential biomarkers reflecting immune dysregulation and airway remodeling.
Objectives: This study was designed to examine the correlation between serum Interleukin-13 and arginase-1 levels with asthma severity and control status in Iraqi patients, as well as to assess their viability as biomarker-based indicators of disease activity.
Materials and methods: A case-control study was conducted involving 180 participants, comprising 90 individuals with asthma and 90 healthy controls, from April 2025 to January 2026. According to GINA standards, asthma severity and control were divided into groups. We employed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to quantify the concentrations of arginase-1 and IL-13 in serum and analyzed the data using nonparametric statistical methods to evaluate the findings.
Results: The levels of serum arginase-1 and IL-13 were significantly higher in asthmatic patients than in healthy controls (p<0.001). IL-13 was strongly associated with the severity of the disease, with levels being much higher in severe asthma than in moderate asthma (p<0.0001) and rising steadily as control status got worse (p=0.0009). On the other hand, arginase-1 levels were much higher in people with severe asthma (p=0.0384), but they didn’t differ much across asthma control groups (p=0.6079). Correlation analysis demonstrated a weak but statistically significant positive association between IL-13 and arginase-1 levels (r=0.251, p=0.017). Binary logistic regression showed that the overall model was highly significant (χ²=212.18, p<0.0001) and had excellent explanatory power (Nagelkerke R²=0.923).
Conclusion: Serum IL-13 is strongly associated with both asthma severity and loss of disease control, reflecting active type-2 inflammation, whereas arginase-1 appears to be primarily linked to disease presence and severity rather than control status. The combined assessment of arginase-1 and IL-13 provides valuable biomarker-based insight into asthma phenotyping and may improve clinical evaluation of disease activity in Iraqi patients.
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