Role of Environmental Adjuvants in Asthma Development

Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2020 Jun 16;20(9):42. doi: 10.1007/s11882-020-00935-3.

Abstract

Purpose of review: This review summarizes recent progress in our understanding how environmental adjuvants promote the development of asthma.

Recent findings: Asthma is a heterogeneous set of lung pathologies with overlapping features. Human studies and animal models suggest that exposure to different environmental adjuvants activate distinct immune pathways, which in turn give rise to distinct forms, or endotypes, of allergic asthma. Depending on their concentrations, inhaled TLR ligands can activate either type 2 inflammation, or Th17 differentiation, along with regulatory responses that function to attenuate inflammation. By contrast, a different category of environmental adjuvants, proteases, activate distinct immune pathways and prime predominantly type 2 immune responses. Asthma is not a single disease, but rather a group of pathologies with overlapping features. Different endotypes of asthma likely arise from perturbations of distinct immunologic pathways during allergic sensitization.

Keywords: Allergic sensitization; Asthma; Endotypes; Proteases; TLR ligands.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Asthma / diagnosis*
  • Asthma / etiology
  • Asthma / pathology
  • Environmental Exposure / adverse effects*
  • Humans