BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Allergy
Sec. Allergy Diagnosis
Plasma Glutathione Peroxidase Activity Negatively Correlates with Atopic Diseases in Children but Not Adults: An Exploratory Study
Jennifer M. Pilat 1
Girish Hiremath 1
Joshua B. Wechsler 2
Evan S. Dellon 3
Yash A. Choksi 1,4
Matthew A. Buendia 1
1. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, United States
2. Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, United States
3. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
4. VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, United States
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Abstract
Atopic diseases, including atopic dermatitis, food allergy, allergic rhinitis, asthma, and eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), are characterized by chronic inflammatory responses to aero-and/or food allergens. Oxidative stress has been increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis of these conditions. Antioxidant glutathione peroxidase (GPX) enzymes help mitigate oxidative stress by neutralizing hydrogen peroxide and lipid hydroperoxides. Since EoE requires invasive procedures for diagnosis and surveillance, our primary aim was to determine whether plasma GPX activity levels can be used as a non-invasive biomarker for disease activity, and our secondary aim was to determine whether plasma GPX activity levels correlate with other atopic diseases. While plasma GPX activity levels did not correlate with EoE, they did negatively correlate with non-EoE atopic disease in pediatric, but not adult subjects. These findings necessitate future studies to determine their clinical utility and underlying mechanisms.
Summary
Keywords
allergic rhinitis (AR), Asthma, Atopic dermatitis (AD), Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), Food allergy (FA), GpX : Glutathione peroxidase
Received
18 December 2025
Accepted
20 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Pilat, Hiremath, Wechsler, Dellon, Choksi and Buendia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Matthew A. Buendia
Disclaimer
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