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. 2022 Sep 1:15:1227-1243.
doi: 10.2147/JAA.S373307. eCollection 2022.

Association of Allergic Sensitivity and Pollination in Allergic Respiratory Disease: The Role of Pollution

Gandhi Fernando Pavón-Romero  1 , María Del Carmen Calderón-Ezquerro  2 , Michelle Alejandra Rodríguez-Cervantes  3 , David Fernández-Villanueva  1 , Esmeralda Melgoza-Ruiz  1 , Fernando Ramírez-Jiménez  1 , Luis M Teran  1
Affiliations

Association of Allergic Sensitivity and Pollination in Allergic Respiratory Disease: The Role of Pollution

Gandhi Fernando Pavón-Romero et al. J Asthma Allergy. .

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the association between allergic sensitivity and pollen counts in patients with allergic respiratory disease (ARD) and its relationship with atmospheric pollutants.

Methods: From 2012 to 2018, we evaluated the sensitivity by skin prick test in ARD patients. The pollen counts were analyzed according to international guidelines (2014-2018). The pollutant and meteorological data were obtained at the same time from AIRE-CDMX websites. We analyzed the association between allergic sensitivity and pollen counts using the χ2 test and stratified by disease allergic rhinitis (AR) and AR with asthma (ARwA), periods (before/after 2015), and pollination seasons (S1:2014-2015), (S2:2015-2016), (S3:2016-2017), (S4:2017-2018). Likewise, we correlated the pollen counts with the concentrations of pollutants using Pearson's correlation. For all analyses, we used SPSS v.21 software, and a p-value <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: A total of 520 patients were enrolled, of whom 67.3% had ARwA and 33.7% had AR (p<0.05). The frequency of patients allergic to at least one pollen was higher compared with patients sensitive to indoor allergens (55.3% vs 44.6%, p<0.001). A total of 46.8% of the patients were only sensitive to trees in comparison to other outdoor allergens (p<0.001). The Fraxinus sp. and the Cupressaceae family allergens were approximately two times more frequent than the other tree allergens in both diseases (p<0.05). These pollens doubled their counts since 2015 (p<0.001), which was associated with increases in sensitivity for Fraxinus sp. and the Cupressaceae family compared to previous years (p<0.001). Regarding pollutants, the most significant correlations were with PM10, NO2, PMCO for Fraxinus sp. pollen concentrations in all seasons (p≤0.02).

Conclusion: The high increases in pollen counts of the Fraxinus sp. and Cupressaceae family were associated with increases in the frequency of sensitization to these species, and this phenomenon correlated with increases in PM10, NO2, and PMCO.

Keywords: air pollutants; airborne particulate matter; allergy; asthma; pollen; rhinitis allergic seasonal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The interaction of pollutants such as PM2.5 and O3 with pollen induces: (A) an increase in the production of pollen concentrations, (B) a fragile pollen membrane, and (C) post-translational modifications in the allergenic protein. In all cases, there are increased levels of allergen proteins, which can be processed by antigen-presenting cells, resulting in a type I hypersensitivity inflammation (mechanism mediated by IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13, and an increase in immunoglobulin E), whose main objective is the degranulation of preformed mediators (histamine or tryptase) contained in mast cells, which promotes mucus secretion by goblet cells and bronchospasm, main symptom of asthma.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of allergy sensitivity. (A) Venn diagram of patients sensitive to only one allergen (monosensitive) and patients sensitive to two or more (polysensitive), (B) Venn diagram of patients sensitive to indoor allergens and/or pollen, (C) Venn diagram of patients sensitive to and/or different of pollen (trees and/or grasses and/ or weeds).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The main sensitization to aeroallergens in skin prick test.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Allergic sensitivity by disease.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Pollen monitoring (2014–2018). (A) Pollen frequency, (B) Pollen count measured in annual pollen Integral (APIn), (C) Pollen counts by pollination season.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Allergic sensitivity per period by disease.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Seasons correlations between significant meteorological variables and pollutants with pollen.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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