Noriyuki Tashima

I was very honoured to receive the APSR Assembly Virtual Meeting award in 2020. This was the first time for me to attend an international virtual meeting. It was a great pity that the APSR 2020 congress had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, thanks to the efforts of APSR president Prof Nakanishi, the chairs, the secretariats, and AstraZeneca, the Asthma Assembly Virtual Meeting was held in November 2020. I am grateful to be given the opportunity to present our research at the meeting.

My title was "Elevated serum free fatty acids may be a risk factor of adult onset asthma: Nagahama Study". Obesity is a risk factor for asthma, especially in females. Plasma free fatty acid levels are usually elevated in obesity. There were reports of metabolome analysis focusing the relationship between serum fatty acids and the morbidity or the severity of asthma. The associations between levels of serum fatty acids and long-term asthma incidence remain unknown. In this study, we comprehensively performed mass spectrometry of serum fatty acids and identified the fatty acids that contribute to the asthma incidence by partial least squares discriminant analysis. The Nagahama epidemiological study is a long-term, large-scale cohort study that includes detailed interviews on diet, prescription of hyperlipidemic drugs, time between meal and blood sampling, and so on. We could obtain reliable analysis results with the cooperation of the subjects.

At the virtual meeting, I was amazed important findings which motivate me to further research. I am looking forward to seeing you at the APSR Congress in Kyoto in November 2021. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who helped this study, the APSR staff, my boss Dr Matsumoto, and colleagues in our department.