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Inhaled allergens are known for their immediate and ongoing effects in the respiratory tract (RT).
Atopic asthma, which is at its highest prevalence during childhood/young adulthood, represents the main focus of this review.
Appropriate innate immune function is essential to limit pathogenesis and severity of severe lower respiratory infections (sLRI) during infancy, a leading cause of hospitalization and risk factor for subsequent asthma in this age group.
Asthma exacerbations in children are associated with respiratory viral infection and atopy, resulting in systemic immune activation and infiltration of immune cells into the airways. The gene networks driving the immune activation and subsequent migration of immune cells into the airways remains incompletely understood. Cellular and molecular profiling of PBMC was employed on paired samples obtained from atopic asthmatic children during acute virus-associated exacerbations and later during convalescence.
Human perinatal life is characterized by a period of extraordinary change during which newborns encounter abundant environmental stimuli and exposure to potential pathogens. To meet such challenges, the neonatal immune system is equipped with unique functional characteristics that adapt to changing conditions as development progresses across the early years of life, but the molecular characteristics of such adaptations remain poorly understood.
Poor maternal diet during pregnancy is a risk factor for severe lower respiratory infections in the offspring, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that in mice a maternal low-fiber diet led to enhanced LRI severity in infants because of delayed plasmacytoid dendritic cell recruitment and perturbation of regulatory T cell expansion in the lungs.
Interleukin-10 is a key immunomodulatory cytokine the principal function of which is to limit the magnitude of immune response.
Childhood asthma is a condition characterized by airflow obstruction that varies in time spontaneously, in response to various environmental stimuli...
The hallmark of atopic asthma is transient airways hyperresponsiveness (AHR) preceded by aeroallergen-induced Th-cell activation.
Elucidation of early life factors is critical to understand the development of allergic diseases, especially those manifesting in early life such as food allerg