Environmental Influences and Allergic Diseases in the Asia-Pacific Region: What Will Happen in Next 30 Years?

Abstract

Asia-Pacific is a populous region with remarkable variations in socioeconomic development and environmental exposure among countries. The prevalence rates of asthma and allergic rhinitis appear to have recently reached a plateau in Western countries, whereas they are still increasing in many Asian countries. Given the large population in Asia, even a slight increase in the prevalence rate will translate into an overwhelming number of patients. To reduce the magnitude of the increase in allergic diseases in next few decades in Asia, we must understand the potential factors leading to the occurrence of these disorders and the development of potential preventive strategies. The etiology of allergic disorders is likely due to complex interactions among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors for the manifestations of inappropriate immune responses. As urbanization and industrialization inevitably progress in Asia, there is an urgent need to curtail the upcoming waves of the allergy epidemic. Potentially modifiable risk exposure, such as air pollution, should be minimized through timely implementation of effective legislations. Meanwhile, re-introduction of protective factors that were once part of the traditional farming lifestyle might give new insight into primary prevention of allergy.

From preschool wheezing to asthma: Environmental determinants

“…farm animals and consumption of unprocessed milk were critical for protection against asthma. 78,79 This concept has been further corroborated by mechanistic studies showing that farm dust contains a variety of microbes and microbial ligands, conferring protection against wheezing illness and childhood asthma. 41,80,81 A meta-analysis confirmed that consuming raw farm milk before age 5 reduced the risk of on asthma (odds ratio [OR] = 0.58) and current wheeze (OR = 0.66).…”

“…84 In rural China, where the environment is very different from the dairy farms in central Europe, large farm animals like cows and their milk were not the animal source of protection against asthma. 79 Instead, poultry exposure was the most important protective factor in rural China. 85 Evidence across different populations suggests that lifestyle related to a farming/rural environment involves multiple activities and heterogeneous exposures, which likely contributes to the overall protective effect via several potential exposure routes (e.g.…”

Adverse Events for Monoclonal Antibodies in Patients with Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

“…We also found that countries where studies were conducted brought up a medium heterogeneity, and subgrouping the studies into Western, Asian, and multinational could eliminate heterogeneity, which indicated that the region of research might influence the incidence of adverse events. Region could not only reflect the racial compositions of participants to some extent, but also give a hint of the living environments and lifestyles of patients, which was proved to be essential factors causing AR, and even many other allergic diseases [32][33][34][35]. As AR has become a global health issue, the promotion of biological treatments worldwide required special attention on adverse events among patients in different areas with different ethnicities.…”

Emerging Roles of Non-Coding RNAs in Childhood Asthma

“…That’s to say, p38 MAPK is vital for allergen induced epithelial production of IL-25 and thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), further mediating the type-2 allergic response in asthma ( Yu et al, 2010 ; Lin et al, 2015 ; Southworth et al, 2018 ). Previous studies have confirmed that dual-specificity phosphatase1 (DUSP1) also plays vital role in anti-inflammation by deactivating MAPKs through dephosphorylation ( Pulido and Lang, 2019 ; Xin et al, 2021 ; Theodorou et al, 2022 ; Xing and Wong, 2022 ). Besides, Studies have confirmed that JNK is essential for airway inflammation via modulating RAGE/β-catenin signaling ( Huang et al, 2021a ).…”