A Comprehensive Review of Asthma: Genetic, Environmental and Multifactorial Influences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.3809Keywords:
Asthma, Inflammation, Epigenetics, Genes, Airway remodelingAbstract
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by airway obstructiveness, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and recurring respiratory symptoms. It affects more than 260 million people worldwide and varies in severity across individuals and populations (World Health Organization, WHO, 2023). This review examines whether genetics, environmental factors, and gene-environment interaction cause asthma. Studies estimate heritability between 35-70% (Ober and Yao, 2011). Susceptibility loci, mainly the 17q21 region (Moffatt et al.,2007) interact with environmental triggers such as tobacco, pollution, and allergens (Papi et al., 2008). The evidence supports asthma as a multifactorial disease contributed to by susceptibility and environmental interactions.
References
Asher, M. I., et al. (2020). Global asthma prevalence. The Lancet Respiratory
Medicine, 8(7), 687–698. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30105-0
Barnes, P. J. (2008). The cytokine network in asthma. Journal of Clinical
Investigation, 118(11), 3546–3556. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI36130
Bleecker, E. R., et al. (2016). IL-5 pathway in asthma. Journal of Allergy and
Clinical Immunology, 137(5), 1421–1431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2016.02.023
Busse, W. W., & Lemanske, R. F. (2001). Asthma. New England Journal of
Medicine, 344(5), 350–362. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM200102013440507
Cookson, W., et al. (2017). Genetics and asthma. European Respiratory Journal,
(5), 1602210. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02210-2016
Fahy, J. V. (2015). Type 2 inflammation in asthma. Nature Reviews Immunology,
(1), 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3786
Holgate, S. T. (2012). Innate and adaptive immune responses in asthma. Nature
Medicine, 18(5), 673–683. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2731
Lambrecht, B. N., & Hammad, H. (2015). The immunology of asthma. Nature
Immunology, 16(1), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3049
Martinez, F. D. (2007). Genes, environments, and asthma development. Journal of
Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 119(1), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2006.10.052
Moffatt, M. F., et al. (2007). Genetic variants regulating ORMDL3 expression
contribute to childhood asthma risk. Nature, 448, 470–473.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06014
Ober, C., & Yao, T.-C. (2011). The genetics of asthma. Immunity, 35(4), 527–535.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2011.09.002
Papi, A., et al. (2018). Asthma. The Lancet, 391(10122), 783–800.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)33311-1
Wenzel, S. E. (2012). Asthma phenotypes. Nature Medicine, 18(5), 716–725.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2678
World Health Organization. (2023). Asthma fact sheet.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/asthma
Zhu, Z., et al. (2018). Gene–environment interactions in asthma. Journal of Allergy
and Clinical Immunology, 141(6), 2003–2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2018.02.038
Downloads
Posted
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Research Archive of Rising Scholars

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.