Patel S, Meher B R
Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics Research Center, San Diego State University, San Diego 92182, USA.
Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 2016 Nov-Dec;44(6):580-593. doi: 10.1016/j.aller.2015.11.001. Epub 2016 Mar 16.
Currently, mankind is afflicted with diversified health issues, allergies being a common, yet little understood malady. Allergies, the outcome of a baffled immune system encompasses myriad allergens and causes an array of health consequences, ranging from transient to recurrent and mild to fatal. Indoor allergy is a serious hypersensitivity in genetically-predisposed people, triggered by ingestion, inhalation or mere contact of allergens, of which mite and cockroaches are one of the most-represented constituents. Arduous to eliminate, these aeroallergens pose constant health challenges, mostly manifested as respiratory and dermatological inflammations, leading to further aggravations if unrestrained. Recent times have seen an unprecedented endeavour to understand the conformation of these allergens, their immune manipulative ploys and other underlying causes of pathogenesis, most importantly therapies. Yet a large section of vulnerable people is ignorant of these innocuous-looking immune irritants, prevailing around them, and continues to suffer. This review aims to expedite this field by a concise, informative account of seminal findings in the past few years, with particular emphasis on leading frontiers like genome-wide association studies (GWAS), epitope mapping, metabolomics etc. Drawbacks linked to current approaches and solutions to overcome them have been proposed.
目前,人类面临着各种各样的健康问题,过敏是一种常见但却鲜为人知的疾病。过敏是免疫系统紊乱的结果,涉及无数过敏原,并会引发一系列健康后果,从短暂性到复发性,从轻症到重症甚至致命。室内过敏是一种发生在具有遗传易感性人群中的严重超敏反应,由摄入、吸入或仅仅接触过敏原引发,其中螨虫和蟑螂是最典型的过敏原成分。这些空气过敏原很难清除,持续对健康构成挑战,主要表现为呼吸道和皮肤炎症,如果不加以控制会进一步加重。近年来,人们为了解这些过敏原的结构、它们对免疫系统的操控策略以及其他潜在的发病原因,尤其是治疗方法,做出了前所未有的努力。然而,很大一部分易过敏人群对这些看似无害却在他们周围普遍存在的免疫刺激物一无所知,仍在遭受痛苦。本综述旨在通过简要介绍过去几年的重要研究成果,特别是基因组关联研究(GWAS)、表位作图、代谢组学等前沿领域,来推动该领域的发展。文中还提出了当前方法存在的缺点以及克服这些缺点的解决方案。