News & Notes

Publication date: February 2017
Source:Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 139, Issue 2





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CME Activities Calendar

Publication date: February 2017
Source:Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 139, Issue 2





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Lessons learned from birth cohort studies conducted in diverse environments

Publication date: February 2017
Source:Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 139, Issue 2
Author(s): Daniel J. Jackson, James E. Gern, Robert F. Lemanske
Childhood asthma develops from a complex interaction among host and environmental factors in early life. Birth cohort studies have provided valuable insight into asthma risk factors and the natural history of wheezing and asthma through childhood and beyond. Early life aeroallergen sensitization and wheezing illnesses associated with virus and bacterial infections have been identified as pivotal risk factors for asthma inception. Recently, focus has turned toward protective factors that promote lung health in children. Studies in a variety of environments, including farms and urban communities, suggest that diverse exposures to microbes in early life lead to a lower risk of allergy and asthma in childhood. The mechanisms underlying how these exposures and the gut and airway microbiomes alter the host response to allergens and viruses are of interest and an area of ongoing study. Longitudinal follow up of birth cohorts in diverse environments worldwide will continue to provide critical knowledge about the factors that impact the natural history of asthma.



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Lessons learned from birth cohort studies conducted in diverse environments

Publication date: February 2017
Source:Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 139, Issue 2





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Mechanisms of the Development of Allergy (MeDALL): Introducing novel concepts in allergy phenotypes

Publication date: February 2017
Source:Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 139, Issue 2
Author(s): Josep M. Anto, Jean Bousquet, Mubeccel Akdis, Charles Auffray, Thomas Keil, Isabelle Momas, Dirkje S. Postma, Rudolf Valenta, Magnus Wickman, Anne Cambon-Thomsen, Tari Haahtela, Bart N. Lambrecht, Karin C. Lodrup Carlsen, Gerard H. Koppelman, Jordi Sunyer, Torsten Zuberbier, Isabelle Annesi-Maesano, Albert Arno, Carsten Bindslev-Jensen, Giuseppe De Carlo, Francesco Forastiere, Joachim Heinrich, Marek L. Kowalski, Dieter Maier, Erik Melén, Henriette A. Smit, Marie Standl, John Wright, Anna Asarnoj, Marta Benet, Natalia Ballardini, Judith Garcia-Aymerich, Ulrike Gehring, Stefano Guerra, Cynthia Hohmann, Inger Kull, Christian Lupinek, Mariona Pinart, Ingebjorg Skrindo, Marit Westman, Delphine Smagghe, Cezmi Akdis, Niklas Andersson, Claus Bachert, Stephane Ballereau, Ferran Ballester, Xavier Basagana, Anna Bedbrook, Anna Bergstrom, Andrea von Berg, Bert Brunekreef, Emilie Burte, Kai-Hakon Carlsen, Leda Chatzi, Jonathan M. Coquet, Mirela Curin, Pascal Demoly, Esben Eller, Maria Pia Fantini, Leena von Hertzen, Vergard Hovland, Benedicte Jacquemin, Jocelyne Just, Theresa Keller, Renata Kiss, Manolis Kogevinas, Sibylle Koletzko, Susanne Lau, Irina Lehmann, Nicolas Lemonnier, Mika Mäkelä, Jordi Mestres, Peter Mowinckel, Rachel Nadif, Martijn C. Nawijn, Johan Pellet, Isabelle Pin, Daniela Porta, Fanny Rancière, Emmanuelle Rial-Sebbag, Yvan Saeys, Martijn J. Schuijs, Valerie Siroux, Christina G. Tischer, Mathies Torrent, Raphaelle Varraso, Kalus Wenzel, Cheng-Jian Xu
Asthma, rhinitis, and eczema are complex diseases with multiple genetic and environmental factors interlinked through IgE-associated and non–IgE-associated mechanisms. Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy (MeDALL; EU FP7-CP-IP; project no: 261357; 2010-2015) studied the complex links of allergic diseases at the clinical and mechanistic levels by linking epidemiologic, clinical, and mechanistic research, including in vivo and in vitro models. MeDALL integrated 14 European birth cohorts, including 44,010 participants and 160 cohort follow-ups between pregnancy and age 20 years. Thirteen thousand children were prospectively followed after puberty by using a newly standardized MeDALL Core Questionnaire. A microarray developed for allergen molecules with increased IgE sensitivity was obtained for 3,292 children. Estimates of air pollution exposure from previous studies were available for 10,000 children. Omics data included those from historical genome-wide association studies (23,000 children) and DNA methylation (2,173), targeted multiplex biomarker (1,427), and transcriptomic (723) studies. Using classical epidemiology and machine-learning methods in 16,147 children aged 4 years and 11,080 children aged 8 years, MeDALL showed the multimorbidity of eczema, rhinitis, and asthma and estimated that only 38% of multimorbidity was attributable to IgE sensitization. MeDALL has proposed a new vision of multimorbidity independent of IgE sensitization, and has shown that monosensitization and polysensitization represent 2 distinct phenotypes. The translational component of MeDALL is shown by the identification of a novel allergic phenotype characterized by polysensitization and multimorbidity, which is associated with the frequency, persistence, and severity of allergic symptoms. The results of MeDALL will help integrate personalized, predictive, preventative, and participatory approaches in allergic diseases.



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Multigenerational cohorts in patients with asthma and allergy

Publication date: February 2017
Source:Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 139, Issue 2
Author(s): S. Hasan Arshad, Wilfried Karmaus, Hongmei Zhang, John W. Holloway
Recent observations that disease risk can be transmitted across generations without the need for direct exposure of the child to the index environmental insult has sparked interest in transgenerational inheritance. Epigenetics describes processes that modify gene expression without a change in the nucleotide sequence. Epigenetic processes can be induced in response to environmental exposures, can influence disease risk, and might explain these multigenerational effects. In experimental models a number of epigenetic mechanisms have been identified that could mediate vertical transmission of epigenetic inheritance. However, relevance of these findings to human disease is not yet clear. An alternative model is one in which transgenerational inheritance of disease risk requires the presence of exposure-related diseases in the mother during pregnancy (termed induced epigenetic transmission model). A number of cross-sectional studies have investigated multigenerational effects in allergy and asthma. However, given the early-life origins of asthma and allergy, birth cohort studies are ideal to investigate the effect of genetic predisposition, epigenetics, and environmental exposures, avoiding pitfalls, such as recall bias and confounding by ongoing exposures, disease, and treatment. The well-characterized 3 generations of the Isle of Wight cohort include 2 consecutive birth cohorts, providing longitudinal data that can be studied for epigenetic transfer of information, such as the effect of grand parental smoking or exposure to other toxic compounds. Further large multigenerational birth cohorts are needed to establish the clinical relevance of this phenomenon and differentiate between vertical and induced transmission models, which might influence future preventive strategies.



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The Editors' Choice

Publication date: February 2017
Source:Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 139, Issue 2
Author(s): Cezmi A. Akdis, Zuhair K. Ballas




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