RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN ASTHMA & ALLERGY

Introduction
Involved Researchers
Ongoing Research
Recently Published Articles

Asthma, a chronic disease of the respiratory system and a major cause of infant morbidity, increased dramatically within the last three decades. According to The National Survey of Children’s Health (2003), which covers the age-span from birth to 17 years, over 5% of Caucasian children suffer from asthma and over 8% of African American children. A skin allergy, also called atopic dermatitis, occurred in nearly 9% of Caucasian and over 14% of African American children. Hay fever was reported for 15-16% of the children and food allergy in approximately 3.5% of the children. Altogether, asthma and allergic diseases affect every fourth child in the United States. Hence, the burden of childhood asthma and allergies remains a critical clinical and public health problem.
On the one hand, to prevent asthma and allergies, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors. On the other hand, the dramatic increase in the last decades is probably explained by gene-environment interactions. Thus, to identify environmental risk factors, we also need to understand the genetic counterpart.

Involved Researchers:
Wilfried Karmaus MD, Dr.med., MPH
Erik Svendsen Ph.D.

Ongoing Research:
In the area of asthma and allergic disorders, we focus on biomarkers of exposure, air pollution, toxic waste incinerators, indoor air, mite antigens, susceptibility, and their health outcome in children. There are two projects:

• The Isle of Wight (IOW) birth cohort study
• The Pregnancy, Environment, and Child Health (PEACH) study.

The IOW birth cohort (n=1,456) was established in 1989 by David Hide and Hasan Syed Arshad to investigate the development of allergy and asthma. This cohort has been examined extensively for asthma and allergic diseases at ages 1, 2, 4 and 10 years.
In 2001, Wilfried Karmaus connected the investigators of the Isle of Wight (IOW) birth cohort in the United Kingdom with genetic scientists at Michigan State University. This group started to collaborate and succeeded in transporting blood samples to the United States. To date, we managed to receive two (ongoing) NIH grants. One of the two projects, which was recently granted, add examinations of cohort members at the ages of 17-18 years.
At Michigan State University, Dr. Susan Ewart and her team determine various single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of asthma candidate genes. Currently, data on IL13, GATA3, and IL1RN are available. The team of Wilfried Karmaus at the University of South Carolina is providing statistical and epidemiological analyses of the genetic and allergy data of the children (birth to age 10).
Graduate students are welcome to support the analyses of this large data-set.

PEACH Project: The goal of this study is to establish a cohort of approximately 200 mother-infant pairs. It is based at University of South Carolina (Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Obstetric and Gynecology) and involves collaboration with Medical University of South Carolina’s OB/GYN clinic.
PEACH is designed to study whether exposures to environmental chemicals in utero or via breastfeeding pose a risk for the immune development of the child. In particular, the study will assess halogenated organic compounds (HOC) such as

• polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),
• dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (DDE), and
• polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

Outcomes of interest are immune markers (cytokines, immunoglobulins) and infectious and allergic manifestation in childhood (middle ear infections, asthma, and eczema).

The project is supported by grant from the United States Environmental Protective Agency.

We expect to have first data available in Summer 2008.

recently published articles:
Ramadas RA, Sadeghnejad A, Karmaus W, Arshad SH, Matthews S, Huebner M, Kim DY, Ewart SL. IL-1R antagonist gene and prenatal smoke exposure are associated with childhood asthma. Eur Respir J, 2007; 29:502-508.

Sadeghnejad A, Karmaus W, Arshad SH, Ewart SL. IL13 gene polymorphism association with cord serum immunoglobulin E. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2007; 18:288-92.