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Allergic asthma is a risk factor for human cardiovascular diseases

Nature Cardiovascular Research volume 1, pages 417–430 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Asthma is an allergic airway disease in which type 2-mediated inflammation has a pathogenic role. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are type 1-dominant inflammatory diseases in which type 2 cytokines often have a protective role. However, clinical studies demonstrate that allergic asthma and associated allergies are essential risk factors for CVD, including coronary heart diseases, aortic diseases, peripheral arterial diseases, pulmonary embolism, right ventricular dysfunction, atrial fibrillation, cardiac hypertrophy and even hypertension. Mast cells, eosinophils, inflammatory cytokines and immunoglobulin (Ig)E accumulate in asthmatic lungs and in the injured heart and vasculature of patients with CVD. Clinical studies show that many anti-asthmatic therapies affect the risk of CVD. As such, allergic asthma and CVD may share common pathogenic mechanisms. Preclinical investigations indicate that anti-asthmatic drugs have therapeutic potential in certain CVDs. In this Review, we discuss how asthma and allied allergic conditions may contribute to the prevalence, incidence and progression of CVD and vice versa.

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Fig. 1: Asthma, asthma medications and asthma-relevant allergies are risk factors for CVD.
Fig. 2: Allergic asthma or hyper-responsiveness promotes mouse atherogenesis and AAA growth and vice versa.
Fig. 3: Angiogenesis in asthmatic lungs.
Fig. 4: Pathogenic role of adipose tissues in CVD and allergic asthma.
Fig. 5: EOS function in CVD and asthma.
Fig. 6: IgE functions in asthma and CVD.

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Acknowledgements

The studies were supported by the Hainan Province Science and Technology special fund (ZDYF2020214 to J.G.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81770487, 91939107 and 82170440 to J.G.), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hainan Medical University (JBGS202104 to J.G.), the Key Laboratory of Emergency and Trauma (Hainan Medical University) of the Ministry of Education (KLET-201917 to J.G. and KLET-202019 to Y.Z.), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL151627 and HL157073 to G.-P.S.; HL34636 and HL80472 to P.L.) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (AG063839 to G.-P.S.).

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  1. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Junli Guo, Yuanyuan Zhang, Tianxiao Liu, Bruce D. Levy, Peter Libby & Guo-Ping Shi

  2. Key Laboratory of Tropical Cardiovascular Diseases Research of Hainan Province & Key Laboratory of Emergency and Trauma of Ministry of Education, the First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China

    Junli Guo & Yuanyuan Zhang

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J.G., Y.Z. and G.-P.S. drafted the manuscript and prepared the figures and tables; T.L. prepared all the art work; B.D.L. and P.L. read and edited the manuscript.

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Guo, J., Zhang, Y., Liu, T. et al. Allergic asthma is a risk factor for human cardiovascular diseases. Nat Cardiovasc Res 1, 417–430 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00067-z

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