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The immunology of asthma

Abstract

Asthma is a common disease that affects 300 million people worldwide. Given the large number of eosinophils in the airways of people with mild asthma, and verified by data from murine models, asthma was long considered the hallmark T helper type 2 (TH2) disease of the airways. It is now known that some asthmatic inflammation is neutrophilic, controlled by the TH17 subset of helper T cells, and that some eosinophilic inflammation is controlled by type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2 cells) acting together with basophils. Here we discuss results from in-depth molecular studies of mouse models in light of the results from the first clinical trials targeting key cytokines in humans and describe the extraordinary heterogeneity of asthma.

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Figure 1: Overview of functions of TH2 cells and ILC2 cells in asthma.
Figure 2: Relative roles of TH2 cells and ILC2 cells in two forms of eosinophilic asthma.
Figure 3: Epithelial cell–DC interactions during the sensitization and challenge phase of experimental asthma.
Figure 4: Defective antiviral immunity in asthma.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by the European Union European Research Council (B.N.L.), the European Union Framework Programme 7 (MedALL and EUBIOPRED to B.N.L.), the University of Ghent Multidisciplinary Research Platform (Group-ID, to B.N.L.) and Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen (B.N.L. and H.H.).

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Lambrecht, B., Hammad, H. The immunology of asthma. Nat Immunol 16, 45–56 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3049

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