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Allergens and respiratory pollutants: The role of innate immunity

Edited by M A Williams, United States Environmental Protection Agency, USA

Woodhead Publishing Series in Biomedicine No. 4

 - discusses recent advances in our understanding of cell-mediated innate immune mechanisms that occur during allergic inflammation and provides important timely coverage of diseases of concern and how such diseases are influenced by a dysfunctional immune system
 - provides useful information on linking environmental 'danger signals' that provoke immune dysfunction and exacerbation of existing disease
 - draws upon the collective expertise of an international college of leaders in the field, but also provides chapters that provide essential reference material
 - highly relevant to the basic researcher as well as those practicing health care in the fields of pulmonary medicine, human clinical immunology and translational medicine

Allergens and respiratory pollutants is a collection of 12 authoritative papers that draws upon the collective expertise of world leaders in the fields of innate immunity, immunotoxicology and pulmonary biology. The book critically explores the biological and immunological mechanisms that contribute to immune dysfunction on exposure to allergens and the susceptibility to infectious disease on exposure to ambient pollutants. The clinical relevance of exposure to ambient airborne xenobiotics is critically discussed and collectively, this book provides an educational forum that links the health effects of environmental exposures, immune dysfunction and inflammatory airways disease.

Human airways and the lung are consistently challenged by their environment. Not only are the airways challenged by infectious microorganisms including virulent bacteria and viruses and aeroallergens, the airways are also challenged by 'modern-day' anthropogenic and xenobiotic agents present in the ambient environment and the air we breathe. Collectively, these 'man-made' pollutants expose each and every one of us to respirable pollutants such as ozone, particulate matter pollutants and other noxious respiratory irritants including nitrogen dioxide among others.

A detailed understanding of the response of the pulmonary system to the external environment provides important information on the immune pathogenesis of many airway diseases including asthma. Over the last several decades, the incidence of allergic diseases in industrialized urban environments has progressively increased. Allergic diseases represent a dysfunction of normal host immunity to seemingly harmless environmental triggers, including aeroallergens and airborne pollutants. Allergic diseases include allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, allergic asthma, and atopic eczema and present a significant burden of disease, not least in the industrialized part of the world. By contrast, allergic inflammation is an integral component of the normal host immune response that is observed during parasitic infection where the inflammatory response in itself causes severe clinical sequelae among susceptible individuals. The two compartment model of allergic hypersensitivity bridges genetic and environmental factors as key components in allergic sensitization. In recent years, innate immune mechanisms have been recognized as key players in allergic inflammation with particular emphasis paid to the role of basophils, mast cells, eosinophils and dendritic cells in sensing allergens and environmental xenobiotics as 'danger' signals and presenting them to the adaptive arm of host immunity.

Note: this book is not a product of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the USEPA or the U.S. Government

ISBN 1 907568 54 9
ISBN-13: 978 1 907568 54 1
July 2011
312 pages  234 x 156mm  hardback  
£110.00 / US$185.00 / €130.00

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An e-book version of this title is available to purchase as part of a Collection or Pick n Mix or by Chapter. Visit Woodhead Publishing Online

About the editor

Dr Marc A. Williams is a Biologist with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, USA and a former Assistant Professor of Medicine and Environmental Medicine at The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, USA and Instructor of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has a long-standing interest and program of research in the field of immunotoxicology and innate immunity. Currently, he is studying the cell-mediated and molecular mechanisms involved in the dysfunction of the pulmonary immune system and the role played by respirable ambient pollutants including diesel exhaust particulate matter and ambient airborne particulate matter in that process. Dr Williams has a distinguished career in basic and translational scientific research. He serves on numerous national leadership committees including those of The American Thoracic Society (ATS) and The American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology (AAAAI) and is a fellow of AAAAI. Dr Williams also serves as Associate Editor of Stem Cells and Development and of The Journal of Innate Immunity and serves on the editorial boards of several others including Biomarker Insights, Journal of Receptor, Ligand and Channel Research and ScientificWorldJournal (Immunol & Inflammation Domain). Dr Williams is listed in Marquis Who's Who in America and Cambridge Who's Who of Professionals. He has also been recognized through membership of The Faculty of 1000 (Immunology - Section on Innate Immunity) and is the author of more than 60 original research papers, invited reviews and editorials.

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Contents

An introduction to allergic infl ammation and the innate immune sensing of dangerous ambient pollutants by the dendritic cell
Marc A. Williams
 - Introduction
 - The mononuclear phagocyte system: key players in innate immunity
 - The enigmatic dendritic cell: the Janus face of immunity
 - Atopic inflammation
 - The hygiene hypothesis
 - Pulmonary dendritic cells sense the enemy within
 - Concluding remarks

Asthma: primary immunomodulatory pathways
Timothy D. Bigby and Patricia W. Finn
 - Introduction
 - Receptors of the innate immune system and asthma
 - Additional immunoregulatory pathways
 - Bioinformatics/systems biology
 - The future

Environmental lung injury and pattern recognition receptors
Zhuowei Li, Stavros Garantziotis, Paul W. Noble and John W. Hollingsworth
 - Introduction
 - Toll-like receptor 4 signaling
 - Bacterial endotoxin contributes to environmental airways disease
 - Microbial contamination of aerosolized biomass
 - The role of toll-like receptors in sterile lung injury
 - Toll-like receptor 4 and other human lung diseases
 - Allergic airways disease and toll-like receptors
 - Transplantation and pattern recognition receptors
 - Environmental co-exposures and pattern recognition receptors
 - Conclusion

Asthma exacerbations: a paradigm of synergy between allergens, pollutants and viruses
Antoine Magnan, Karine Botturi, Anai¨s Pipet, Arnaud Cavaillès, Damien Reboulleau, Marie Langelot and Yannick Lacoeuille, assisted by Emilie Berthoux and Bérangère Neveu
 - Introduction
 - Immunopathology of controlled asthma
 - Adaptive immunity, from atopy to asthma
 - Innate immunity from atopy to asthma
 - Immunopathology of exacerbations
 - Immunopathology according to triggering factors
 - Concluding remarks

Bronchial hyperresponsiveness and lung inflammation induced by allergic immune response and oxidative stress: role of innate and adaptive immune responses
Kian Fan Chung and Alison S. Williams
 - Introduction
 - Airway responses to allergens
 - Ozone and lung disease
 - Conclusions

Effects of air pollutants on allergic sensitization through the airway
Donald N. Cook and Hideki Nakano
 - Introduction
 - Adjuvants
 - Dendritic cells
 - Immunotolerance to inhaled antigens
 - Animal models of air pollution-enhanced allergic sensitization
 - Mechanisms of air pollution-enhanced allergic
 - sensitization

Particulate matter and oxidative stress: dangerous partners in infl ammation, vascular dysfunction and innate immunity
Steve N. Georas and Mark W. Frampton
 - Introduction
 - Role of ultrafine particles
 - Dendritic cells as key environmental sensors
 - Dangerous properties of PM
 - Response to inhaled PM
 - Concluding remarks

Diesel exhaust particles and the airway epithelial cell–dendritic cell interface in the control of immune homeostasis
Joan Reibman, Bertram Bleck, Doris Tse and Maria Curotto de Lafaille
 - Introduction
 - Traffi c-related pollution
 - T cell balance in asthma
 - DC overview and subtypes
 - DC in the lung
 - Ambient PM and DEP and DC trafficking
 - DEP and bronchial epithelial cell induced
 - DC maturation
 - Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)
 - Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP)

Role of macrophages in adverse pulmonary effects of particulate pollutants
Raymond Pieters
 - Introduction
 - Macrophages as immunomodulating cells
 - Ubiquitous role of macrophages in immune
 - homeostasis
 - Particulate matter and macrophages
 - Link between particle-induced macrophage activation, respiratory allergy and lung infections
 - Future perspectives

Particulate air pollution and vulnerability to respiratory infections in children
Jonathan Grigg
 - Introduction
 - Developmental vulnerability
 - Respiratory infections in children
 - Bacterial pneumonia in the developing world
 - Bacterial pneumonia in the developed world
 - Bronchiolitis
 - Interactions between viruses and bacteria
 - Conclusions

The intersection of respiratory syncytial virus infection, innate immunity and allergic lung disease
Michael H. Chi, Martin L. Moore and R. Stokes Peebles, JR
 - Introduction
 - Pollution, ambient particulate matter, and ozone
 - Innate immunity gene polymorphisms
 - Surfactant proteins
 - Toll-like receptors
 - Interferon-α
 - Dendritic cells
 - Natural killer cells
 - Timing
 - Future directions
 - Conclusions

Interactions between allergens and dendritic cells: pattern recognition receptors and their function in the pathogenesis of allergic respiratory diseases
Stephanie T. Yerkovich and John W. Upham
 - Introduction
 - Allergic respiratory diseases: the key instigators and cellular players
 - Interactions between allergens and DC
 - Pathogen recognition receptors
 - Conclusions