Abstract
Recent advances in biology in the post genomic era have yielded an appreciation of systems approaches to understand mechanisms of human diseases that reductionist science has failed to elucidate. Systems biology is a new way to look at the multiple interacting factors in the onset and progression of environmentally caused human disease. Asthma is an important environmental disease. It is estimated that on a global basis approximately 300,000 million people have asthma. Asthma is the most prevalent childhood disease, and the leading cause of childhood hospitalizations. When humans are exposed to triggers of asthma, a network of cytokines, and interconnected biochemical pathways in the cell is activated. Those pathways interact as a system to trigger sympthomatic presentation of the disease. Interactions of the cytokines and biochemical pathways involved in inflammatory processes are discussed. Application of the methods of systems biology to environmental diseases to yield new information on the mechanism of disease and inform new strategies for public health intervention and prevention approaches are discussed.
Keywords
- Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus
- System Biology
- Alveolar Macrophage
- Airway Epithelial Cell
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Toscano, W.A., Oehlke, K.P., Kafoury, R. (2010). An Environmental Systems Biology Approach to the Study of Asthma. In: Pawankar, R., Holgate, S.T., Rosenwasser, L.J. (eds) Allergy Frontiers: Future Perspectives. Allergy Frontiers, vol 6. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-99365-0_15
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