Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity?
Asthma is now recognized as a heterogeneous disease, encompassing different phenotypes driven by distinct pathophysiological mechanisms called endotypes. Common phenotypes of asthma, referred to as eosinophilic asthma, are characterized by the presence of eosinophilia. Eosinophils are usually consid...
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doaj-6f72b997c58645a187c5c3637ccba7ea2021-09-26T00:25:41ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1661-65961422-00672021-09-0122101501015010.3390/ijms221810150Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity?Glenn Van Hulst0Fabrice Bureau1Christophe J. Desmet2Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, B34, GIGA Institute and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Liège University, 4000 Liège, BelgiumLaboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, B34, GIGA Institute and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Liège University, 4000 Liège, BelgiumLaboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, B34, GIGA Institute and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Liège University, 4000 Liège, BelgiumAsthma is now recognized as a heterogeneous disease, encompassing different phenotypes driven by distinct pathophysiological mechanisms called endotypes. Common phenotypes of asthma, referred to as eosinophilic asthma, are characterized by the presence of eosinophilia. Eosinophils are usually considered invariant, terminally differentiated effector cells and have become a primary therapeutic target in severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) and other eosinophil-associated diseases (EADs). Biological treatments that target eosinophils reveal an unexpectedly complex role of eosinophils in asthma, including in SEA, suggesting that “not all eosinophils are equal”. In this review, we address our current understanding of the role of eosinophils in asthma with regard to asthma phenotypes and endotypes. We further address the possibility that different SEA phenotypes may involve differences in eosinophil biology. We discuss how these differences could arise through eosinophil “endotyping”, viz. adaptations of eosinophil function imprinted during their development, or through tissue-induced plasticity, viz. local adaptations of eosinophil function through interaction with their lung tissue niches. In doing so, we also discuss opportunities, technical challenges, and open questions that, if addressed, might provide considerable benefits in guiding the choice of the most efficient precision therapies of SEA and, by extension, other EADs.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/18/10150eosinophilic asthmaeosinophilsendotypesplasticityeosinophil subsetsimmunotherapy |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Glenn Van Hulst Fabrice Bureau Christophe J. Desmet |
spellingShingle |
Glenn Van Hulst Fabrice Bureau Christophe J. Desmet Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity? International Journal of Molecular Sciences eosinophilic asthma eosinophils endotypes plasticity eosinophil subsets immunotherapy |
author_facet |
Glenn Van Hulst Fabrice Bureau Christophe J. Desmet |
author_sort |
Glenn Van Hulst |
title |
Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity? |
title_short |
Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity? |
title_full |
Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity? |
title_fullStr |
Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Eosinophils as Drivers of Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: Endotypes or Plasticity? |
title_sort |
eosinophils as drivers of severe eosinophilic asthma: endotypes or plasticity? |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
issn |
1661-6596 1422-0067 |
publishDate |
2021-09-01 |
description |
Asthma is now recognized as a heterogeneous disease, encompassing different phenotypes driven by distinct pathophysiological mechanisms called endotypes. Common phenotypes of asthma, referred to as eosinophilic asthma, are characterized by the presence of eosinophilia. Eosinophils are usually considered invariant, terminally differentiated effector cells and have become a primary therapeutic target in severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) and other eosinophil-associated diseases (EADs). Biological treatments that target eosinophils reveal an unexpectedly complex role of eosinophils in asthma, including in SEA, suggesting that “not all eosinophils are equal”. In this review, we address our current understanding of the role of eosinophils in asthma with regard to asthma phenotypes and endotypes. We further address the possibility that different SEA phenotypes may involve differences in eosinophil biology. We discuss how these differences could arise through eosinophil “endotyping”, viz. adaptations of eosinophil function imprinted during their development, or through tissue-induced plasticity, viz. local adaptations of eosinophil function through interaction with their lung tissue niches. In doing so, we also discuss opportunities, technical challenges, and open questions that, if addressed, might provide considerable benefits in guiding the choice of the most efficient precision therapies of SEA and, by extension, other EADs. |
topic |
eosinophilic asthma eosinophils endotypes plasticity eosinophil subsets immunotherapy |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/18/10150 |
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1717366248091680768 |