Risk of asthma, hay fever, eczema high due to multiple genes: Study
| Aug 6, 2019, 12:04 IST
The risk of asthma, hay fever, and eczema largely depends on multiple genes, according to a new study conducted by a team from SciLifeLab at Uppsala University. Researchers identified41 genes that were never linked to the risk of these health issues in the past.
A combination of factors like environment, genes and lifestyle can cause a person to develop asthma, hay fever or eczema. In many cases, patients who suffer from one of these conditions have a higher chance of developing the other two condition at some point in their lives. "For those interested in taking part in similar studies where they can get information about their own genetic inheritance, we'd like to point out that the results you can read from DNA in similar studies relate only to people's disease risk, which doesn't correspond to a diagnosis. External factors also affect our risk for these complex traits, and an elevated risk doesn't mean we're going to develop the disease," study author Weronica Ek, a researcher at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University, told a news portal.
While previous research has investigated the genes that have an impact on these diseases, this is the first study and the largest of its kind to investigate the entire genetic background in connection to these health issues.
The team also conducted tests on a separate group to verify whether or not the 41 news genes play a role in a person being diagnosed with all three diseases. The results showed that they did. Genetic factors raise the risk of suffering from allergy, according to the team.
Researchers hope the findings lead to the development of better to drugs that are more effective in treating these issues. "The results from this study are helping us to reach a greater understanding of why certain individuals are at higher risk of developing asthma and allergies, and we hope the results will be put to use both in clinical diagnostics and in drug development," Ek told a news portal.
The study's findings were originally published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.
A combination of factors like environment, genes and lifestyle can cause a person to develop asthma, hay fever or eczema. In many cases, patients who suffer from one of these conditions have a higher chance of developing the other two condition at some point in their lives. "For those interested in taking part in similar studies where they can get information about their own genetic inheritance, we'd like to point out that the results you can read from DNA in similar studies relate only to people's disease risk, which doesn't correspond to a diagnosis. External factors also affect our risk for these complex traits, and an elevated risk doesn't mean we're going to develop the disease," study author Weronica Ek, a researcher at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University, told a news portal.
While previous research has investigated the genes that have an impact on these diseases, this is the first study and the largest of its kind to investigate the entire genetic background in connection to these health issues.
The team also conducted tests on a separate group to verify whether or not the 41 news genes play a role in a person being diagnosed with all three diseases. The results showed that they did. Genetic factors raise the risk of suffering from allergy, according to the team.
Researchers hope the findings lead to the development of better to drugs that are more effective in treating these issues. "The results from this study are helping us to reach a greater understanding of why certain individuals are at higher risk of developing asthma and allergies, and we hope the results will be put to use both in clinical diagnostics and in drug development," Ek told a news portal.
The study's findings were originally published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.