Frontiers in allergy最新文献

Children around the world are continuing to develop and suffer from chronic lung diseases such as asthma. Childhood asthma commonly presents with recurrent episodes of cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing, all of which can lead to missed school days and hospitalization admissions. The role of environmental pollutants and aeroallergens has been increasingly recognized in relation to asthma etiology. We showcase the impacts of air pollution and pollen exposures in early life on childhood asthma and allergies through an epidemiologic perspective. We also examine the effects of indoor microbial exposures such as endotoxin and glucan on allergic diseases in schoolchildren as many spend most of their time in a household or classroom setting. Findings of this work can assist in the identification of key environmental factors in critical life periods and improve clinicians' diagnoses of asthma during early childhood.

Background: The clinical efficacy of allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) for Alternaria alternata (A. alt) and Dermatophagoides farinae (Der f) extracts remains largely unknown in China. We sought to retrospectively evaluate the efficacy caused by AIT agents manufactured in China of patients who are sensitized to A. alt and Der f.

Methods: Patients aged 5-27 years with asthma and perennial allergic rhinitis (AR), and AIT with A. alt and Der f were recruited, and then classified into two groups: A. alt-AIT (n = 31) and A. alt + Der f-AIT group (n = 39). All data were gathered retrospectively, including biological parameters, pulmonary function, and symptom and medication scores.

Results: 70 patients who underwent A. alt and Der f AIT were enrolled. A significant improvement was observed in the values of FEV1% (P < 0.0001) and MEF 25 (P = 0.023) of lung function. Both the rhinitis symptoms and combined symptoms and medication scores for asthma decreased after AIT (by 45.3% and 80.3%, respectively, P < 0.0001 for each). Nearly 67% improvement rate (P < 0.0001) occurred in rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life, and a great increase existed in Asthma Control Test (ACT) score (P < 0.0001) after at least 1 year AIT, although there were no significant changes between these two groups. Besides, no significance was displayed in specific IgE to different allergens.

Conclusion: AIT with A. alt and Der f extracts had clinical efficacy for many patients in China, with a reduction of symptom and medication scores, and great improvement in spirometry function.

Background: There is a growing housing crisis in rural America with homelessness growing in addition to a growing number of substandard homes due to an inability to afford the costs of repair and maintenance. The goal of the current study was to assess the housing concerns in rural Alabama Black Belt communities which are often understudied and the relationship between housing quality and respiratory health.

Methods: A semi-random sampling of five Black Belt counties was conducted to obtain a sample of 253 rural households. The survey was designed to obtain information regarding household income, housing status including a list of safety concerns and respiratory health. A χ ² analysis was performed to examine the effect of housing type and income on prevalence of respiratory illness and safety home concerns (e.g., roofing, windows/doors, floors, mold/mildew).

Results: The majority of households surveyed had an annual income below $15,000 and owned their homes with over half of the homes being manufactured homes. Lower income was associated with increased prevalence of asthma [χ ²(2, N = 237) = 7.75, p = 0.021], while living in a manufactured home was associated with increased risk of allergies [χ ²(1, N = 251) = 7.88, p = 0.005]. Additionally, poor windows and doors [χ ²(1, N = 253) = 3.8, p = 0.05] was associated with higher prevalence of asthma.

Conclusions: The results confirm and expand previous results and demonstrate the relationship between quality housing and allergy and asthma prevalence in rural areas with an abundance of aging manufactured homes.

Introduction: To understand any possible healthcare system benefits and changes of behavior for the patients with the change in prescription co-payment in Sweden we aimed to provide an update on the trends of EAI dispensings and hospitalizations for the Swedish paediatric population (ages 0-19 years), from 2018 to 2022, including by sex and geographic region.

Methods: Using publically-available, population-level aggregate data from Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare, we extracted information on annual epinephrine (ATC C01CA24) dispensings per 1,000 inhabitants from 2018 to 2023, overall, as well as stratified by sex, age groups and geographic region; and on inpatient stays 2018-2022 (ICD-10 code T78), anaphylaxis and other allergic reactions, per 100,000 individuals. We compared these estimates to those for adults ages 18 + years, for whom prescription co-payments remained in place.

Results: EAI dispensings remained stable for children and adults across the study period, with the exception of statistically significant decreases amongst dispensings for children across all ages in 2021 (6.65/1,000) and 2022 (7.37/1,000), compared to 2018 (8.63/1,000) (each year p = 0.03 compared to 2018 dispensings). National EAI dispensings did not statistically significantly differ from 2018 (8.63/1,000) to 2023 (6.70/1,000) amongst children. EAI dispensings for children ages 5 + years consistently exceed dispensings for adults per 1,000 inhabitants; only children aged 0-4 years had proportionately fewer dispensings. Children ages 0-4 years tended to be hospitalised more often than older children, albeit these differences were not statistically significant (all p > 0.97).

Conclusion: Subsequent to the removal of out-of-pocket costs for EAI, dispensings did not increase for children, although more EAI were dispensed to children from age 5 years, compared to younger children. Allergy-related hospitalisations were highest amongst children ages 0-4, lower amongst children ages 5-14 years, and again higher amongst those ages 15-19 years.

Introduction: Small airways dysfunction contributes to asthma pathophysiology and clinical outcomes including exacerbations and asthma control. Respiratory oscillometry is a simple, non-invasive and effort independent lung function test that provides vital information about small airway function. However, interpretation and clinical utility of respiratory oscillometry has been in part limited by lack of agreed parameters and the respective cutoffs. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of small airways dysfunction based on published impulse oscillometry (IOS) definition in patients with asthma referred to a tertiary asthma clinic and the extent to which it correlates with asthma clinical outcomes.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients with asthma managed in the severe asthma clinic between January 2019 and December 2022 who underwent routine lung function tests with oscillometry and spirometry. Small airways dysfunction was determined from various published IOS parameter cutoffs, and the data were analysed to determine correlations between IOS parameters and asthma outcomes.

Results: Amongst the 148 patients, the prevalence of small airways dysfunction ranged from 53% to 78% depending on the defining oscillometry parameter. All oscillometry parameters correlated with the severity of airflow obstruction (FEV₁% predicted, p < 0.001). Several oscillometry parameters correlated with asthma symptom burden, the strongest correlation was seen for frequency dependent resistance (R₅-R₂₀) with scores of Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ6) (Spearman's rank coefficient 0.213, p = 0.028) and Asthma Control Test (ACT) (Spearman's rank coefficient -0.248, p = 0.012). R₅-R₂₀ was predictive of poor asthma control defined by ACQ6 >1.5 (OR 2.97, p = 0.022) or ACT <20 (OR 2.44, p = 0.055). Small airways dysfunction defined by R₅-R₂₀ and area under the reactance curve (AX) also significantly increases asthma exacerbation risk (OR 2.60, p = 0.02 and OR 2.31, p = 0.03 respectively).

Conclusion: Respiratory oscillometry is a sensitive measure of small airways dysfunction that should complement spirometry in the routine assessment of asthma. Small airways dysfunction is highly prevalent in patients with asthma referred to a tertiary asthma clinic. R₅-R₂₀ was the metric most predictive in identifying patients at risk of asthma exacerbations and poor asthma control.

Introduction: Recent evidence has demonstrated that the microbiome is a driver of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of respiratory disease. Studies have indicated that bacterial metabolites produced in the gut and lung can impact lung inflammation and immune cell activity, affecting disease pathology. Despite asthma being a disease with marked sex differences, experimental work linking microbiomes and asthma has not considered the sex variable.

Methods: To test the hypothesis that the lung and gut microbial composition impacts allergic lung inflammation in a sex-specific manner, we evaluated lung and gut microbiome alterations in a mouse model of allergic inflammation and assessed their association with lung function and inflammation phenotypes. For this, we exposed male and female adult C57BL/6J mice intranasally to 25 µg of a house dust mite extract mix (HDM) daily, or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) as control, for 5 weeks (n = 4-6/group). DNA from fecal pellets collected before and after the 5-week treatment, and from lung tissue collected at endpoint, was extracted using the ZymoBIOMICS®-96 MagBead DNA Kit and analyzed to determine the 16S microbiome via Targeted Metagenomic Sequencing.

Results: The HDM treatment induced a sex-specific allergic inflammation phenotype with significantly higher neutrophilia, lymphocytosis, inflammatory gene expression, and histopathological changes in females than males following exposure to HDM, but higher airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in males than females. In addition, sex-specific lung gene expression and associated pathways were identified HDM mix after challenge. These changes corresponded to sex-specific alterations in the gut microbiome, where the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio (F:B) was significantly reduced in fecal samples from only male mice after HDM challenge, and alpha diversity was increased in males, but decreased in females, after 5-weeks of HDM treatment.

Discussion: Overall, our findings indicate that intranasal allergen challenge triggers sex-specific changes in both gut and lung microbiomes, and induces sex-specific lung inflammation, AHR, and lung inflammatory gene expression pathways, suggesting a contribution of the lung-gut axis in allergic airway disease.