# Enterolactone and asthma

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA · 2020 · $192,839

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
1  This proposal details a 5-yr plan to prepare the candidate, Juan C. Cardet MD, for a career as an
2  independent, translational investigator positioned to impact our understanding of asthma. The aim is to clarify
3  the relationship between enterolactone and asthma through complementary clinical and basic strategies.
 4  Lignans are dietary, plant-derived chemicals with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Enterolactone
 5  is the end product of human gut bacterial metabolism of lignans. Differences in gut microbiome composition
 6  categorize patients into high- vs. low-enterolactone producers. This group reported concentration-dependent
 7  inverse associations between enterolactone and asthma in a nationally-representative cohort (NHANES); but
 8  this study is limited by its cross-sectional design and incomplete clinical characterization. We hypothesize
 9  that enterolactone's inverse relationship with asthma is driven by its anti-inflammatory and anti-
10  oxidative properties. The candidate will clarify whether enterolactone has a clinically-evident relationship
11  with asthma by analyzing data from the NHLBI Severe Asthma Research Program's (SARP) prospective
12  study. As a founding partnership in SARP, our group has access to stored biospecimens and participants'
13  clinical, biochemical, and physiological data collected during 3 years of follow-up. Further, the candidate
14  will employ in vitro and in vivo approaches to determine enterolactone's effects on human airway structural
15  cells and murine models of asthma. Preliminary data by Cardet et al suggest that enterolactone may have
16  anti-inflammatory effects on A549 human airway epithelial cells, observations this group will extend through
17  this proposal. Clinical findings will steer the focus of laboratory experiments, and reversely, discoveries at the
18  bench will generate clinical questions. At this project's conclusion, the candidate will be skillful with (1)
19  sophisticated biostatistical analyses on clinical datasets such as SARP's; and with designing, conducting, and
20  interpreting experiments on (2) airway structural cells (3) and murine models of asthma.
21  During the award period, the candidate will leverage his clinical experience with asthma, regular exposure to
22  NIH research networks, and structured academics at the HSPH's MPH program. This training will allow him to
23  transition to independence during the 4-5th years of the award. Dr. Cardet will work under the 1° mentorship of
24  Dr. Elliot Israel, an expert in translation asthma research with an excellent mentoring record. He will have as
25  co-mentors Drs. Quan Lu and Stephanie Shore, who will train Dr. Cardet to master the basic experiments
26  described herein (see `Research Strategy, Aim 2'). Further, Dr. Cardet has assembled a team of
27  extraordinary physician-scientists (Drs. Joshua Boyce, Bruce Levy, and Wanda Phipatanakul), who have
28  committed ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9846187
- **Project number:** 5K23AI125785-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Juan Carlos Cardet
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $192,839
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-02-15 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9846187

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9846187, Enterolactone and asthma (5K23AI125785-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9846187. Licensed CC0.

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