The OMICS role in the early diagnosis of OSA

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome is a condition characterized by the presence of complete or partial collapse of the upper airways during sleep, resulting in fragmentation of sleep associated with rapid episodes of intermittent hypoxia (IH) and activation of the sympathetic nervous system and oxidative stress. (Dempsey et al. 2010, 47–112; Bradley and Floras 2003, 1671–78; Bradley and Floras 2009, 82–93). OSA is associated with a broad spectrum of cardiovascular, metabolic, neurocognitive and comorbidities that appear to be particularly evident in obese patients (Floras 2014, 3–8; Luz Alonso-Álvarez et al. 2011, 0, 2–18; Marcus et al. 2012, e714–55; Sforza and Roche 2016, 99), while affecting both sexes in a different manner and varying in severity according to gender and age (Mokhlesi, Ham and Gozal 2016, 1162–69). In recent years, studies on OSA have increased considerably, but in clinical practice it is still a highly underdiagnosed disease (Costa et al. 2015, 1288–92). To date, the gold standard for the diagnosis of OSA is nocturnal polysomnography (PSG). However, since it is not well suited to a large number of patients, also the Home Sleep Test (HST) is an accepted diagnostic method. Currently, the major aim of the research is to identify non-invasive methods to achieve a highly predictive, noninvasive screening system for this category of subjects. The most recent reports indicate that research in this field has made significant progress in identifying possible biomarkers in OSA, using -OMIC approaches, particularly in the field of proteomics and metabolomics. In this review, we analyze a list of these OMIC biomarkers found in literature.