Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics on allergic airways and potential pathogenesis: a review

This review examines how microplastics, which can enter the body through breathing, eating, and skin contact, may affect allergic airway conditions. Researchers found evidence that microplastics can damage airway lining cells, disrupt the protective barrier of the respiratory tract, and trigger heightened airway reactivity. The study suggests that chronic microplastic exposure may worsen allergic airway inflammation, though more research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms involved.

2025 Environmental Geochemistry and Health 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Airway exposure to microplastics: Potential mechanisms from epithelial barrier damage to the development of allergic rhinitis

This review summarized the mechanisms by which airborne microplastic exposure triggers allergic rhinitis, identifying pathways including physical and chemical disruption of the airway epithelial barrier, oxidative stress from adsorbed pollutants, and induction of Th2 immune responses and IgE class-switching. The findings support airborne MPs as a novel trigger for upper respiratory allergic disease.

2025 Environmental Research
Article Tier 2

Progress in understanding the impact of microplastics on respiratory allergic diseases

This review synthesized evidence on how airborne microplastics may affect respiratory allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis and asthma. Researchers found that inhaled microplastics can compromise airway barriers by disrupting tight junctions, impairing mucus clearance, and weakening mucosal defenses. The study suggests that microplastic characteristics like polymer type, particle size, and surface chemistry influence how they initiate or worsen respiratory allergic responses.

2026 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version)
Article Tier 2

The New Paradigm: The Role of Proteins and Triggers in the Evolution of Allergic Asthma

Researchers reviewed the role of epithelial barrier damage and protein triggers in the development of allergic asthma. The study suggests that allergen proteases and environmental factors like microplastics and pollution can degrade airway epithelial junctions, allowing allergen penetration and triggering inflammatory cascades that contribute to asthma progression.

2024 Preprints.org 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Risk factors for the prevalence and development of allergic diseases

This review synthesized evidence on risk factors for the development of allergic diseases, covering genetic predisposition, early-life microbial exposure, diet, air pollution, and emerging exposures including microplastics. The authors discuss how environmental changes have driven rising allergy prevalence and identify microplastics as a candidate contributing factor warranting further study.

2024 Liječnički vjesnik
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Allergic Rhinitis: Multimechanistic Drivers of Barrier Disruption and Immune Dysregulation

This review examines the multimechanistic pathways by which microplastics drive barrier disruption and immune dysregulation in allergic rhinitis, considering how physical and chemical properties of microplastic particles interact with nasal epithelial and immune function. The paper synthesizes emerging evidence on microplastics as a novel contributor to upper airway allergic disease.

2025 Immunology
Article Tier 2

Epithelial barrier hypothesis: Effect of the external exposome on the microbiome and epithelial barriers in allergic disease

This review proposes the 'epithelial barrier hypothesis,' which suggests that modern environmental exposures, including microplastics, air pollution, and processed food additives, are damaging the protective barriers of our skin, gut, and airways. When these barriers break down, foreign substances and bacteria can enter the body and trigger allergic and inflammatory diseases, which have been increasing rapidly in recent decades. The research suggests microplastics may be one of many environmental factors driving the rise in conditions like asthma, food allergies, and eczema.

2022 Allergy 371 citations
Article Tier 2

Allergy and immunotoxicology in preventive and clinical medicine from theory to practice: Environmental factors in bronchial asthma

This review applies an exposome framework to bronchial asthma, identifying living-environment pollutants including microplastics, air pollution, tobacco smoke, climate change, and dietary changes as contributors to asthma pathogenesis and exacerbation.

2024 SANGYO EISEIGAKU ZASSHI 1 citations
Article Tier 2

The Impact of Microplastics on Allergy: Current Status and Future Research Directions

This study reviews current evidence on how microplastics may influence allergic responses, noting that microplastics can compromise epithelial barriers and promote type 2 inflammation associated with allergies. The authors emphasize an urgent need for research into dose-dependent immunotoxicological mechanisms to better understand the relationship between microplastic exposure and allergy development. The study calls for evidence-based policies to reduce microplastic exposure and its potential contribution to the growing allergy burden.

2025 International Archives of Allergy and Immunology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Epithelial Barrier: Protector and Trigger of Allergic Disorders

This review explores the epithelial barrier hypothesis, which proposes that disruption of skin, lung, and gut epithelial barriers by environmental exposures such as microplastics and pollutants drives the rising incidence of allergic and inflammatory diseases.

2022 Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Confronting allergies: strategies for combating pollution and safeguarding our health

This review examined the growing body of evidence linking environmental pollutants, including airborne microplastics, to increasing rates of allergic reactions worldwide. Researchers found that air pollution and indoor contaminants can worsen respiratory allergies, while climate change intensifies seasonal allergy patterns. The study emphasizes the need for comprehensive action including government regulation and public awareness to reduce pollution-driven allergy risks.

2025 Frontiers in Allergy 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Presence of nanoplastics in sputum of patients with severe asthma: a novel environmental perspective

Researchers analyzed sputum from severe asthma patients and detected nanoplastics in samples for the first time, comparing concentrations and immune profiles across asthma phenotypes. Nanoplastic presence in sputum was associated with more severe disease and distinct immune dysregulation patterns, identifying environmental nanoplastic exposure as a potential modifier of asthma severity.

2025
Article Tier 2

Impact of Microplastic Exposure on Airway Inflammation in an Acute Asthma Murine Model

Mouse experiments found that microplastic exposure worsened inflammatory responses in healthy lungs but did not further aggravate airway inflammation in mice with pre-existing asthma, suggesting the lung's response to microplastics depends on baseline immune state.

2025 Tuberculosis & respiratory diseases
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Climate change and the epithelial barrier theory in allergic diseases: A One Health approach to a green environment

This review links climate change and increased environmental pollution to the weakening of epithelial barriers in the skin, gut, and lungs, contributing to the rise of allergic diseases worldwide. The paper specifically identifies microplastics alongside other pollutants as agents that damage epithelial barriers, suggesting a mechanism by which microplastic exposure could contribute to allergies and autoimmune conditions.

2023 Allergy 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Co-exposure to polyethylene microplastics and house dust mites aggravates airway epithelial barrier dysfunction and airway inflammation via CXCL1 signaling pathway in a mouse model

In a mouse model of asthma, co-exposure to inhaled polyethylene microplastics and house dust mite allergens caused worse airway inflammation than either pollutant alone. The microplastics damaged the airway lining and amplified allergic reactions through a specific inflammatory signaling pathway called CXCL1. This finding suggests that breathing in airborne microplastics could make allergies and asthma worse by helping allergens penetrate deeper into the lungs.

2024 International Immunopharmacology 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Detrimental effects of microplastic exposure on normal and asthmatic pulmonary physiology

Researchers exposed both healthy and asthmatic mice to airborne microplastics and found significant lung inflammation, immune activation, and increased mucus production in both groups. Microplastic particles were taken up by immune cells called macrophages, and gene analysis revealed changes in immune response, cellular stress, and cell death pathways. The study suggests that inhaling microplastics may worsen respiratory health in both normal and vulnerable populations.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 207 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Common Environmental Exposures on Airway Cilia Biology: Insights into Structure, Function, and Signaling Mechanisms.

This review examined how daily environmental exposures—including cigarette smoke, fine particulate matter, allergens, and microplastics—impair the structure and function of airway cilia, which are essential for clearing inhaled pathogens from the lungs. The authors found that microplastics can physically disrupt cilia and trigger inflammatory signaling, contributing to the progression of respiratory diseases.

2026 International archives of allergy and immunology
Article Tier 2

The interconnection between environment, immune-nutrition and allergic disease

This review explores the connections between environmental factors, immune-nutrition, and the rising global prevalence of allergic diseases. The study discusses how climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss, and environmental contaminants including microplastics contribute to immune dysregulation, and highlights the role of the microbiome and dietary factors in modulating allergic disease risk.

2026 Asia Pacific Allergy
Article Tier 2

Skin, gut, and lung barrier: Physiological interface and target of intervention for preventing and treating allergic diseases

This review summarizes how the protective barriers of our skin, gut, and lungs can be damaged by environmental factors including microplastics, leading to allergic conditions like asthma, food allergies, and eczema. The authors explain that a person's genetics, microbiome, and environmental exposures all contribute to barrier breakdown, and they highlight current treatments as well as gaps in care for these increasingly common conditions.

2024 Allergy 54 citations
Article Tier 2

Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Therapy of Allergic Diseases and Asthma

This review covers advances in biomarkers for diagnosing and personalizing treatment of allergic diseases and asthma, including IgE testing and disease phenotyping. The paper is not directly related to microplastics but addresses immune system responses relevant to pollution-linked respiratory conditions.

2020
Article Tier 2

One Health in allergology: A concept that connects humans, animals, plants, and the environment

This review applies the One Health framework to allergology, arguing that the increasing prevalence of allergic diseases reflects interconnections between human, animal, and environmental health, with environmental contaminants including microplastics among the discussed contributing factors.

2021 Allergy 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Human Responsive Biomarkers of Airborne Microplastics Exposure: Evaluation and Analysis for Health and Environment

This research review looked at 14 studies to understand how tiny plastic particles in the air affect human health by measuring specific markers in our blood and lungs. The studies found that breathing in microplastics causes inflammation in our airways and lungs, similar to what happens with asthma, by triggering the body's immune response. This matters because it helps scientists develop better ways to detect early health problems from plastic pollution and create guidelines to protect people from these invisible particles we breathe every day.

2026 Aerosol and Air Quality Research
Article Tier 2

Winds of change a tale of: asthma and microbiome

This review explores the relationship between the human microbiome and asthma, considering how environmental factors including air pollution and microplastics may influence microbial communities in the airways. Researchers found that changes in the lung and gut microbiome are associated with altered immune responses that can worsen asthma symptoms. The study suggests that environmental exposures, including airborne microplastics, may contribute to asthma development by disrupting the body's natural microbial balance.

2023 Frontiers in Microbiology 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Molecular mechanisms of air pollution–induced carcinogenesis and the emerging role of microplastics

This review examined the molecular mechanisms by which air pollution components — including fine particulate matter, microplastics, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals — contribute to cancer development. The authors identify microplastics as an emerging air pollution carcinogen that can carry and deliver chemical carcinogens into lung tissue.

2025 Human Genomics