Research from Tianjin Medical University General Hospital indicates that reduced activity of the gene ZNF331 may help identify obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). OSA is characterized by repeated interruptions in breathing during sleep and is prevalent among those with IPF, affecting an estimated 60% to 90% of this population.
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The study revealed that ZNF331 activity was significantly lower in individuals suffering from both IPF and OSA compared to those with IPF alone. This gene activity marker outperformed traditional questionnaires that assess daytime sleepiness and sleep quality in distinguishing between the two groups. The researchers expressed cautious optimism about these findings, stating the early data are promising and could lead to the development of a blood-based biomarker for prioritizing patients requiring formal sleep studies.
The article, titled “Identification of ZNF331 as a Biomarker for Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Through Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis and Clinical Validation,” was published in the journal Lung. The authors emphasized that therapeutic interventions for OSA could enhance the quality of life for IPF patients.
IPF is a lung condition of unknown cause characterized by progressive fibrosis, which leads to worsening symptoms and declining lung function. The diagnosis of OSA in IPF patients can be particularly challenging due to existing sleep disturbances, rendering conventional symptom-based assessment tools unreliable.
In this study, the researchers examined two gene expression datasets. The first compared 93 patients with IPF to 30 healthy controls, while the second compared 28 untreated OSA patients with six primary snorers. They identified 51 overlapping genes, focusing on ZNF331 for clinical validation due to its consistent decline across both datasets.
Among a separate patient cohort, including healthy individuals, OSA patients, IPF patients, and those with both conditions, ZNF331 activity showed a clear decline from healthy controls to those with severe cases of both diseases. The analysis found that ZNF331 yielded an area under the curve (AUC) score of 0.932 for distinguishing between the groups, significantly higher than the AUC scores of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.
While these findings support ZNF331’s potential as a blood-based screening biomarker for OSA in IPF patients, the researchers call for further studies to validate these results on a larger scale.