Allergies to food and airborne allergens in children and adolescents : role of epigenetics in a changing environment
Author: Melén, Erik; Koppelman, Gerard H; Vicedo-Cabrera, Ana Maria; Andersen, Zorana Jovanovic; Supinda, Bunyavanich
Department: Inst för klinisk forskning och utbildning, Södersjukhuset / Dept of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset
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Abstract
Allergic diseases today affect millions of children and adolescents worldwide. In this review, we focus on allergies to food and airborne allergens, and provide examples of prevalence trends during a time when climate change is of increasing concern. Profound environmental changes have affected natural systems in terms of biodiversity loss, air pollution levels and climate change. We discuss potential links between these changes and allergic diseases in children, as well as clinical implications. Several exposures of relevance for allergic disease also correlate with epigenetic changes such as DNA-methylation levels. We propose that epigenetics may offer a promising tool by which exposures and hazards related to a changing environment may be captured. Epigenetics may also provide promising biomarkers and help elucidation of mechanisms related to allergic disease initiation and progress.
Key messages:
• Allergic diseases affect millions of children and adolescents worldwide; between 5 and 30% of adolescents report rhino-conjunctivitis symptoms and up to 10 % report food allergy.
• Links between climate change and allergic diseases are of increasing concern, and these include: extended and altered pollen seasons, spread of allergens to new areas along with changing and warmer climate, air pollution exposures changes, increasing exposure to heat events, and altered biodiversity.
• These new climate change aspects of allergic diseases have clinical implications for prevention, diagnostics and treatment.
• Epigenetic changes, exemplified by DNA methylation, are associated both with environmental exposures and allergic diseases, although causality needs to be explored further.
• There is potential in the use of epigenetic signatures and omics profiles to detect and monitor aspects of environmental exposures of relevance for health and disease in children and adolescents.
Key messages:
• Allergic diseases affect millions of children and adolescents worldwide; between 5 and 30% of adolescents report rhino-conjunctivitis symptoms and up to 10 % report food allergy.
• Links between climate change and allergic diseases are of increasing concern, and these include: extended and altered pollen seasons, spread of allergens to new areas along with changing and warmer climate, air pollution exposures changes, increasing exposure to heat events, and altered biodiversity.
• These new climate change aspects of allergic diseases have clinical implications for prevention, diagnostics and treatment.
• Epigenetic changes, exemplified by DNA methylation, are associated both with environmental exposures and allergic diseases, although causality needs to be explored further.
• There is potential in the use of epigenetic signatures and omics profiles to detect and monitor aspects of environmental exposures of relevance for health and disease in children and adolescents.
Institution:
- Department of Clinical Science and Education Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Beatrix Children’s Hospital, Department of Pediatric Pulmonology and Pediatric Allergology, Groningen, The Netherlands
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen Research Institute for Asthma and COPD (GRIAC), Groningen, the Netherlands
- Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Center For Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Division of Allergy & Immunology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA
- Department of Genetics & Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA
Citation: Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2022 Nov;6(11):810-819.
Citation DOI: 10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00215-2
Citation PMID: 35985346
Publishing journal: The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health
Eprint status: Peer Reviewed
Version: Accepted
Issue date: 2023-02-17
Sponsorship:
- European Research Council, Horizon 2020 research programme, 757919, 874627
- Swedish Research Council
- Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
- Region Stockholm
- US National Institutes of Health, R01 AI118833, R01 AI147028, U01 AI160082, U19 AI136053
- ZON-MW (VICI grant)
- Netherlands Lung Foundation
- GSK
- Vertex
- TEVA the Netherlands
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge programme, NNF17OC0027812
Rights:
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Publication year: 2022
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