Unraveling allergen sensitization and allergic rhinitis
Published: September 16, 2025
Allergen sensitization is an early step critical to the development of allergic diseases. Exposure to common environmental allergens including dust mites, pollens, and pet dander can trigger a cascade of immune responses that lead to allergic inflammation. A common clinical manifestation of allergen sensitization is allergic rhinitis (AR), or hay fever, which is characterized by sneezing, nasal congestion, runny nose, and itching of the nose and eyes.
In this issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), Yoon et al. studied 301 participants by measuring their sensitization to environmental allergens, assessing the participants’ symptoms of allergic rhinitis, and obtaining nasal samples to comprehensively profile transcripts expressed by the participants’ nasal cells. The investigators performed a series of network and systems biology analyses to uncover causal relationships between different types of allergen sensitization, allergic rhinitis, and transcript expression.
Yoon and colleagues found that the nasal cells’ expression formed a complex network. Allergen sensitization clustered into four subnetworks representing lymphocyte chemotaxis, mast cell, interleukin-4, and antiviral response. Sensitization to indoor allergens, pollen, and pet dander each mapped to different subnetworks. Each subnetwork was marked by key drivers that shaped causal interactions within the subnetwork. While the key drivers and transcripts for indoor allergen sensitization mapped to the lymphocyte chemotaxis and antiviral response subnetworks, those for pollen sensitization mapped to the mast cell and interleukin-4 subnetworks. Pet sensitization mapped to lymphocyte chemotaxis, mast cell, and interleukin-4. Key drivers for allergic rhinitis significantly overlapped with those for allergen sensitization.
The study revealed allergen-specific biological processes and key drivers underlying sensitization and allergic rhinitis. These findings expand and deepen our mechanistic understanding of environmental allergies.
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) is an official scientific journal of the AAAAI, and is the most-cited journal in the field of allergy and clinical immunology.
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