Decoupling lactylation-associated metabolic remodelling in Asthma: Integrated multi-omics and machine learning...

Aerobic glycolysis promotes lactate accumulation and histone lactylation (Kla), yet the cell-type-specific distribution of this axis and its link to metabolically stratified intercellular signalling in asthma remain poorly defined. We aimed to map lactate/Kla-associated metabolic states across airway lineages and develop an interpretable Lactate Metabolic Biomarker Diagnosis (LMBD) framework.

By integrating bulk transcriptomes (training: GSE63142; validation: GSE43696) and scRNA-seq (GSE193816), we quantified lactate metabolic activity via four gene sets and 114 metabolic pathways. We identified metabolic subtypes using consensus clustering and trained a Gaussian-mixture-model-guided logistic regression classifier with external validation. Mechanistic insights were inferred through CellChat and Monocle2, followed by functional validation of RCC2 in house dust mite (HDM)-stimulated 16HBE cells using siRNA knockdown, lactate quantification, Pan-Kla immunofluorescence, and untargeted LC-MS metabolomics.

Asthma exhibited a macrophage-predominant high-lactate state. We identified a disease-associated macrophage module (Epi1) and two metabolic subtypes, in which the high-lactate group (MBC2) displayed stronger inflammatory transcriptional programs. The LMBD classifier consistently outperformed single-pathway models in the external validation cohort (AUC = 0.799), with RCC2 emerging as the top-ranked feature. Trajectory analysis linked RCC2 to terminal epithelial remodelling. Functional assays demonstrated that RCC2 knockdown significantly reduced intracellular lactate levels, suppressed the expression of glycolysis-associated proteins, and attenuated Pan-Kla signals. Metabolomics further revealed coordinated shifts in redox balance and glycerophospholipid metabolism following RCC2 depletion.

This integrative study delineates lactate/Kla-associated metabolic remodelling in asthma. The LMBD framework offers a robust transcriptomic proxy for metabolic and inflammatory patient stratification, and RCC2 emerges as a candidate regulatory hub linking glycolysis to epigenetic remodelling, thus warranting further investigation in vivo and in clinical cohorts.