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This paper is an editorial comment by Professor Patrick Holt on the potential for developing early intervention strategies in children with allergies and asthma

The respiratory tract is an attractive target organ for novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications with nano-sized carriers, but their immune effects and...

The extent to which maternal smoking in pregnancy (MSP) has persisting effects on respiratory health remains uncertain and the mechanisms involved are not...

We tested whether maternal vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy is related to the autism phenotype.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a commonly occurring chronic skin disease with high heritability. Apart from filaggrin (FLG), the genes influencing atopic...

The purpose of this Review was to give an overview of the recent research into whether a lack of vitamin D contributes to the development of atopy and asthma...

In asthma, a significant portion of the interaction between genetics and environment occurs through microbiota. The proposed mechanisms behind this interaction are complex and at times contradictory. This review covers recent developments in our understanding of this interaction: the "microbial hypothesis" and the "farm effect"; the role of endotoxin and genetic variation in pattern recognition systems; the interaction with allergen exposure; the additional involvement of host gut and airway microbiota; the role of viral respiratory infections in interaction with the 17q21 and CDHR3 genetic loci; and the importance of in utero and early-life timing of exposures.

To investigate the relationship between time spent outdoors, at particular ages in childhood and adolescence, and myopia status in young adulthood using serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration as a biomarker of time spent outdoors. Participants of the Raine Study Generation 2 cohort had 25(OH)D concentrations measured at the 6-, 14-, 17- and 20-year follow-ups. Participants underwent cycloplegic autorefraction at age 20 years, and myopia was defined as a mean spherical equivalent -0.50 dioptres or more myopic. Logistic regression was used to analyse the association between risk of myopia at age 20 years and age-specific 25(OH)D concentrations. Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyse trajectory of 25(OH)D concentrations from 6 to 20 years.

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives were to assess the efficacy and safety of whole‐cell pertussis (wP) vaccinations in comparison to acellular pertussis (aP) vaccinations in early infancy for the prevention of atopic diseases in children.

Recent birth cohort studies showed a significant interaction between cat ownership at birth and mutations in FLG on the development of early‐onset atopic dermatitis