Allergy discordant twins do not exhibit differences in gene expression in non-switched and switched B cellsStephan Schneider1, Pattraporn Satitsuksanoa1, Huseyn Babayev2, Willem van de Veen1, Iris Chang3, Minglin Yang1, Cezmi A. Akdis1, Kari Nadeau4, Mübeccel Akdis11 Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, University of Zurich, Davos, Switzerland2 Abant Izzet Baysal University Hospital, Department of Medical Microbiology, Bolu, Türkiye3 Department of Pediatrics/ Division of Hematology, Oncology, Stem Cell Transplantation, and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA4 Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, Boston, Mass. USA 02115To the Editor,Allergy is a globally spread affliction that is based on dysregulation of immune responses towards ‘harmless’ antigens.1 B cells and their regulation are at the center of allergic disease mechanisms.2,3 They produce IgE, which is essential for allergen-induced mast cell and basophil degranulation.4 The common consensus is, that the regulation of B cells is closely tied to tolerance and allergy.2,5 In allergy this regulation is likely dysfunctional, resulting in different B cell behaviour. Therefore we performed whole transcriptome analysis on peripheral B cells from twins who were discordant or concordant for allergic diseases to identify allergy-associated differential gene expression patterns (i.e. receptors to a type 2 response). We sorted switched and non-switched B cells from 16 twin pairs that were either healthy, allergy discordant or allergy concordant and performed bulk RNA sequencing to identify differences in gene expression patterns. We hypothesized that there would be significantly different expressions in pathways related to B cell activation, B cell regulation or B cell isotype switching correlating to allergic symptoms. The donors were monozygotic and mainly allergic to timothy grass, birch tree pollen and/or house dust mites; none had taken or were on allergen-immunotherapy (Supplementary Table 1-3). Samples were obtained via ethics approval and consent. We sorted switched and unswitched B cells from bio-banked PBMCs, extracted RNA, depleting the ribosomal RNA, and performed 100bp single-end RNA sequencing on the Illumina Novaseq 6000 platform.6 Unbiased clustering, excluding long non-coding RNA, (Figure 1A) showed that the main influences for clustering in descending order are switched vs non-switched B cells, twin pairs and then their concordance status. An individuals allergy status had little to no significant impact on the overall clustering. The same holds true for the PCA analysis of the top 300 significant genes across all samples (Figure 1B). Comparing healthy concordant to allergy concordant twins could be greatly influenced by confounding factors like twin pair similarities and grouping by concordance instead of their actual healthy status. For these reasons, we compared the healthy vs allergic within the discordant twin pairs to avoid these influences for gene expression analysis. In this comparison, neither switched nor non-switched B cell show pathways that would traditionally be associated with allergies or B cell regulation in particular (Supplementary Table 4). A log fold change of greater than 0.5 and a p-value of 0.05 gave a FDR of 0.9999. Adjusting for a FDR below 0.05 (p-value <0.00001) resulted no differentially expressed genes for switched and 5 genes without a common pathway in non-switched B cells. Using this methodology of analysis, we did not find significant differences in pathway regulations on the wider scale of B cells between allergy-discordant twins.PCA analysis for the top 300 genes by the p-value of the allergy-discordant twins confirmed that allergic vs healthy twins do not group by allergy status (Figure 2A). Pathway analysis of the top genes in allergy-discordant twins does not reveal any cohesive pathways (allergy vs healthy) in the switched B cells (Figure 2B). There is one pathway in the upregulated genes of the non-switched B cells, whose genes are associated with the cell cycle and not directly with immune functions.Our results show no indication that there is a general dysregulation of B cells as an underlying cause for allergies. Any differences that might exist are too subtle to be observed across B cells. We propose that distinctions between allergic and non-allergic individuals may only be noticeable in allergen-specific B cells. These effects are probably overshadowed by the variability among individuals due to the rarity of allergen-specific B cells in the overall B cell population.

Aim: The 4th Davos Declaration, convened during the Global Allergy Forum (GAF) in Davos, aimed to elevate patient care for patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) by uniting experts and stakeholders. The forum addressed the high prevalence of AD, with a strategic focus on advancing research, treatment, and management to meet the evolving challenges in the field. Methods: This multidisciplinary forum brought together top leaders from research, clinical practice, policy, and patient advocacy to discuss the critical aspects of AD, including neuroimmunology, environmental factors, comorbidities, and breakthroughs in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The discussions were geared towards fostering a collaborative approach to integrate these advancements into practical, patient-centric care. Results The forum underlined the mounting burden of AD, attributing it to significant environmental and lifestyle changes. It acknowledged the progress in understanding AD and in developing targeted therapies but recognized a gap in translating these innovations into clinical practice. Emphasis was placed on the need for enhanced awareness, education, and stakeholder engagement to address this gap effectively and to consider environmental and lifestyle factors in a comprehensive disease management strategy. Conclusion: The 4th Davos Declaration marks a significant milestone in the journey to improve care for people with AD. By promoting a holistic approach that combines research, education, and clinical application, the Forum sets a roadmap for stakeholders to work together to improve patient outcomes in AD, reflecting a commitment to adapt and respond to the dynamic challenges of AD in a changing world.

Background: Although avian coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and SARS-CoV-2 belong to different genera of the Coronaviridae family, exposure to IBV may result in the development of cross-reactive antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 due to homologous epitopes. We aimed to investigate whether antibody responses to IBV cross-react with SARS-CoV-2 in poultry farm personnel who are occupationally exposed to aerosolized IBV vaccines. Methods: We analyzed sera from poultry farm personnel, COVID-19 patients, and pre-pandemic controls. IgG levels against the SARS-CoV-2 antigens S1, RBD, S2, and N and peptides corresponding to the SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a, N, and S proteins as well as whole virus antigens of the four major S1-genotypes 4/91, IS/1494/06, M41, and D274 of IBV were investigated by in-house ELISAs. Moreover, live-virus neutralization test (VNT) was performed. Results: A subgroup of poultry farm personnel showed elevated levels of specific IgG for all tested SARS-CoV-2 antigens compared to pre-pandemic controls. Moreover, poultry farm personnel, COVID-19 patients, and pre-pandemic controls showed specific IgG antibodies against IBV strains. These antibody titers were higher in long-term vaccine implementers. We observed a strong correlation between IBV-specific IgG and SARS-CoV-2 S1-, RBD-, S2-, and N-specific IgG in poultry farm personnel compared to pre-pandemic controls and COVID-19 patients. However, no neutralization was observed for these cross-reactive antibodies from poultry farm personnel using the VNT. Conclusion: We report here for the first time the detection of cross-reactive IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 antigens in humans exposed to IBV vaccines. These findings have implications for future vaccination strategies and possibly cross-reactive T cell immunity.

Allergic diseases include asthma, atopic-dermatitis, allergic-rhinitis, drug hypersensitivity and food-allergy. During the past years, there has been a global outbreak of allergic diseases, presenting a considerable medical and socioeconomical-burden. A large fraction of allergic diseases is characterized by a type-2 immune response involving Th2 cells, type-2 innate lymphoid cells, eosinophils, mast cells, and M2 macrophages. Biomarkers are valuable parameters for precision medicine as they provide information on the disease endotypes, clusters, precision diagnoses, identification of therapeutic targets, and monitoring of treatment efficacies. The availability of powerful omics technologies, together with integrated data analysis and network-based approaches can help the identification of clinically useful biomarkers. These biomarkers need to be accurately quantified using robust and reproducible methods, such as reliable and point-of-care systems. Ideally, samples should be collected using quick, cost-efficient and non-invasive methods. In recent years, a plethora of research has been directed towards finding novel biomarkers of allergic diseases. Promising biomarkers of type-2 allergic diseases include sputum eosinophils, serum periostin and exhaled nitric-oxide. Several other biomarkers, such as pro-inflammatory mediators, miRNAs, eicosanoid molecules, epithelial barrier integrity, and microbiota changes are useful for diagnosis and monitoring of allergic diseases and can be quantified in serum, body-fluids and exhaled-air. Herein, we review recent studies on biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma, chronic-urticaria, atopic-dermatitis, allergic-rhinitis, chronic-rhinosinusitis, food-allergies, anaphylaxis, drug hypersensitivity and allergen-immunotherapy. In addition, we discuss COVID-19 and allergic diseases within the perspective of biomarkers and recommendations on the management of allergic and asthmatic patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

T regulatory cells from people with asthma show a Th2-like phenotypeKirstin Jansen1, Oliver F. Wirz1, Willem van de Veen1,2, Ge Tan1,3, Milena Sokolowska1, Simon D. Message4, Tatiana Kebadze4, Nicholas Glanville4, Patrick Mallia4, Cezmi A. Akdis1,2, Sebastian L. Johnston4, Kari Nadeau5 and Mübeccel Akdis1*1 Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), University of Zurich, Davos, Switzerland.2 Christine Kühne – Center for Allergy Research and Education (CK-CARE), Davos, Switzerland.3 Functional Genomics Center Zürich, ETH Zürich/University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.4 National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.5 Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.* Corresponding author:Mübeccel Akdis, MD, PhD.Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF)Herman-Burchard-Strasse 9CH-7265 Davos-Wolfgang, SwitzerlandE-mail: [email protected].: +41 81 410 08 48Declaration of fundingM. Akdis has received research support from the Swiss National Science Foundation No. 320030-159870/310030-179428 and PREDICTA (No: 260895) and the Sean N Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University. C.A. Akdis is employed by the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, University of Zurich; the Swiss National Science Foundation No. 310030-156823, and the Christine Kühne – Center for Allergy Research and Education (CK-CARE). M. Sokolowska received research grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation No. 310030_189334/1 and from the GSK. The experimental infection study was supported by a Medical Research Council Clinical Research Fellowship (to S.D.M.), a British Medical Association H.C. Roscoe Fellowship (to S.D.M.), British Lung Foundation/Severin Wunderman Family Foundation Lung Research Program Grant P00/2, Asthma UK Grants 02/027 and 05/067, Welcome Trust Grants 063717 and 083567/Z/07/Z for the Centre for Respiratory Infection, Imperial College, and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Center funding scheme. S. L. Johnston is the Asthma UK Clinical Professor (grant CH11SJ), is an NIHR Emeritus Senior Investigator and was supported by MRC Centre Grant G1000758, Asthma UK Centre Grant AUK-BC-2015-01 and European Research Council Advanced Grant 788575. K.C. Nadeau is supported by NIH grant U19 AI104209 (Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Center), U01 AI140498 and R01 AI140134 and the Naddisy Foundation.To the editor,Asthma is the most common chronic inflammatory disease of the lung, characterised by wheezing, shortness of breath and variable airflow obstruction. It is a heterogeneous disease that can be classified into different endotypes of which T2-high - allergic asthma is one of the most common forms, especially in children. Allergic asthma is characterised by increased IgE and type-2 cytokines, including IL-5, IL-4 and IL-131.Thus far, it is not completely understood why these type-2 responses are poorly controlled in asthma. T regulatory cells (Treg cells) are key mediators in controlling type 2 responses. However, under certain conditions, Treg cells can display a pathogenic and proinflammatory phenotype and contribute to disease pathogenesis2. Treg cells of food allergic children showed a T helper 2 (Th2)-like phenotype. Whether this Th2-like phenotype of Treg cells is also present in asthmatic individuals is unknown.Therefore, in this exploratory study, we compared the gene-expression profile of Tregs from people with stable allergic-asthma to non-allergic controls without asthma. We isolated PBMCs from 5 people with asthma and 4 controls (Table S1) and sorted Treg cells with flow cytometry (CD3+CD4+D25hiCD127low). Then, we isolated RNA from the sorted Treg cells and performed RNA-seq (See Supplemental information for detailed methods). In total, 369 genes were differentially expressed between Treg cells from asthmatic individuals and controls (P<0.01) (Supplemental Figure 1). We clustered the genes into different groups: Treg cell markers, cytokine receptors, virus related, transcription factors, cytokines and others (Figure 1A). Interestingly, we found that the expression of FOXP3was reduced in Treg cells from asthmatic individuals (Figure 1B). This is in line with a previous study that observed a lower expression ofFOXP3 in Treg cells from individuals with asthma3. Interestingly FOXP3 expression inversely correlated with the IgE levels found in the serum (Figure 2A), supporting the finding that Treg cells can suppress IgE production4.In addition, we found a significant upregulation of IL13 mRNA expression and a trend to increased expression of IL4 andIL5 mRNAs in Tregs in asthma, indicating a Th2-like phenotype as was reported in Tregs from children with food allergies2. Furthermore, we found an upregulation of the prostaglandin D2 receptor (PTGDR2 ) or CRTH2, in line with a previous study that reported an increased amount of CRTH2+ Tregs in asthma5.Interestingly, several cytokine receptors were differentially expressed between Tregs from asthmatic individuals compared to controls. The IL-4 receptor alpha transcript IL4RA was significantly reduced in asthma. The expression of IL4RA also strongly correlated with the levels of IgE in the serum (Figure 2A). Previously, it was shown in mice that IL-4 receptor signalling is essential in controlling Th2 responses and airway inflammation6. Our data suggest a similar role of IL4RA in humans. Likewise, we observed a downregulation of TNF receptor superfamily member 25 (TNFRSF25 ), which was shown to contribute to preventing allergic lung inflammation7 and downregulation of OX40 (TNFRSF4 ).Additionally, we observed a difference in virus/type-I interferon(IFN)-related genes in asthma, which was also observed in single-cell transcriptomic data of allergen-specific Tregs from individuals with asthma8. Curiously, the expression of the type 1 IFN receptors IFNAR1/2 were lower expressed in asthma, which could indicate a deficiency against respiratory viruses and chronicity.Lastly, we performed an enrichment analysis to see up or downregulation of pathway maps, process networks and go processes with MetaCore (Table 1). The pathway maps and process networks included upregulation of pathways related to immune functions already described. However, the affected GO processes were mostly related to epigenetic mechanisms including nucleosome organisation, nucleosome assembly and chromatin organisation. With the tool STRING, we performed a pathway analysis that showed a cluster of histone genes (Figure 2B). So far, there is no data reporting the function of histone genes in Tregs or related to asthma, but perhaps this finding could be related to changes in epigenetics. It was reported that in asthma Tregs have increased CpG methylation of theFOPX3 locus compared to individuals without asathma3.In conclusion, Tregs from individuals with asthma show reduced expression of several molecules related to Treg suppressive functionality, while having increased expression of Th2-like characteristics that could lead to their reduced control of allergic airway inflammation. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings in a larger population and investigate their contribution to disease pathology.References1. Kuruvilla, M. E., Lee, F. E. H. & Lee, G. B. Understanding Asthma Phenotypes, Endotypes, and Mechanisms of Disease. Clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology (2019). doi:10.1007/s12016-018-8712-12. Noval Rivas, M. & Chatila, T. A. Regulatory T cells in allergic diseases. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology138 , 639–652 (2016).3. Runyon, R. S. et al. Asthma Discordance in Twins Is Linked to Epigenetic Modifications of T Cells. PLoS One (2012). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.00487964. Meiler, F., Klunker, S., Zimmermann, M., Akdis, C. A. & Akdis, M. Distinct regulation of IgE, IgG4 and IgA by T regulatory cells and toll-like receptors. Allergy Eur. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol.(2008). doi:10.1111/j.1398-9995.2008.01774.x5. Boonpiyathad, T. et al. Impact of high-altitude therapy on type-2 immune responses in asthma patients. Allergy Eur. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 75 , 84–94 (2020).6. Khumalo, J., Kirstein, F., Hadebe, S. & Brombacher, F. IL-4Rα signaling in CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T regulatory cells restrains airway inflammation via limiting local tissue IL-33. JCI Insight (2020). doi:10.1172/jci.insight.1362067. Schreiber, T. H. et al. Therapeutic Treg expansion in mice by TNFRSF25 prevents allergic lung inflammation. J. Clin. Invest.(2010). doi:10.1172/JCI429338. Seumois, G. et al. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of allergen-specific T cells in allergy and asthma. Sci. Immunol.(2020). doi:10.1126/SCIIMMUNOL.ABA60879. Message, S. D. et al. Rhinovirus-induced lower respiratory illness is increased in asthma and related to virus load and Th1/2 cytokine and IL-10 production. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A105 , 13562–13567 (2008).10. Dobin, A. et al. STAR: Ultrafast universal RNA-seq aligner.Bioinformatics 29 , 15–21 (2013).11. Liao, Y., Smyth, G. K. & Shi, W. The Subread aligner: Fast, accurate and scalable read mapping by seed-and-vote. Nucleic Acids Res. 41 , e108 (2013).12. Robinson, M. D., McCarthy, D. J. & Smyth, G. K. edgeR: A Bioconductor package for differential expression analysis of digital gene expression data. Bioinformatics 26 , 139–140 (2009).13. Szklarczyk, D. et al. The STRING database in 2017: quality-controlled protein-protein association networks, made broadly accessible. Nucleic Acids Res 45 , D362-d368 (2017).Figure 1: Tregs from asthmatic individuals show a distinct phenotype compared to controls. (A) Genes that are significantly changed in Tregs cells from asthmatic individuals compared to controls (log 2 ratio)– clustered in the groups: Treg markers, cytokine receptors, virus related, transcription factors, cytokines and others. (B) Fragments per kilo base per million mapped reads (FPKM) values of genes of interest (FOXP3, IL13, IL5, IL4, IL4R, PTGDR2, TNFRSF25, TNFRSF4, IFNAR1, IFNAR2) of all donors. N = 4 (healthy), 5 (asthma). *** p<0.001 , ** p<0.01, * p<0.05Figure 2: Phenotype of Tregs might be associated to Treg function . (A) Correlation between expression of FOXP3 (left) and IL4RA (right) with IgE serum levels. (B) Satellite plot showing a cluster of known interactions related to nucleosome assembly. Genes higher expressed in asthmatic individuals are shown in red, and lower expression in blue.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused an unprecedented global social and economic impact, and numerous deaths. Many risk factors have been identified in the progression of COVID-19 into a severe and critical stage, including old age, male gender, underlying comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, chronic lung disease, heart, liver and kidney diseases, tumors, clinically apparent immunodeficiencies, local immunodeficiencies, such as early type-I interferon secretion capacity, and pregnancy. Possible complications include acute respiratory distress syndrome, shock, disseminated coagulopathy, acute kidney injury, pulmonary embolism, and secondary bacterial pneumonia. The development of lymphopenia and eosinopenia are laboratory indicators of COVID-19. Laboratory parameters to monitor disease progression include lactate dehydrogenase, procalcitonin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1, Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) and ferritin. The development of a cytokine storm and extensive chest computed tomography imaging patterns are indicators of a severe disease. In addition, socioeconomic status, diet, lifestyle, geographical differences, ethnicity, exposed viral load, day of initiation of treatment, and quality of health care have been reported to influence individual outcomes. In this review, we highlight the scientific evidence on the risk factors of COVID-19.

In this review, we discuss recent publications on asthma and review the studies that have reported on the different aspects of the prevalence, risk factors and prevention, mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of asthma. Many risk and protective factors and molecular mechanisms are involved in the development of asthma. Emerging concepts and challenges in implementing the exposome paradigm and its application in allergic diseases and asthma are reviewed, including genetic and epigenetic factors, microbial dysbiosis and environmental exposure, particularly to indoor and outdoor substances. The most relevant experimental studies further advancing the understanding of molecular and immune mechanisms with potential new targets for the development of therapeutics are discussed. A reliable diagnosis of asthma, disease endotyping and monitoring its severity are of great importance in the management of asthma. Correct evaluation and management of asthma comorbidity/multimorbidity, including interaction with asthma phenotypes and its value for the precision medicine approach and validation of predictive biomarkers are further detailed. Novel approaches and strategies in asthma treatment linked to mechanisms and endotypes of asthma, particularly biologicals, are critically appraised. Finally, due to the recent pandemics and its impact on patient management, we discuss the challenges, relationships, and molecular mechanisms between asthma, allergies, SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19.