Eosinophils in Health and Disease: A State-of-the-Art Review

[en] Eosinophils play a homeostatic role in the body's immune responses. These cells are involved in combating some parasitic, bacterial, and viral infections and certain cancers and have pathologic roles in diseases including asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders, and hypereosinophilic syndromes. Treatment of eosinophilic diseases has traditionally been through nonspecific eosinophil attenuation by use of glucocorticoids. However, several novel biologic therapies targeting eosinophil maturation factors, such as interleukin (IL)-5 and the IL-5 receptor or IL-4/IL-13, have recently been approved for clinical use. Despite the success of biologic therapies, some patients with eosinophilic inflammatory disease may not achieve adequate symptom control, underlining the need to further investigate the contribution of patient characteristics, such as comorbidities and other processes, in driving ongoing disease activity. New research has shown that eosinophils are also involved in several homeostatic processes, including metabolism, tissue remodeling and development, neuronal regulation, epithelial and microbiome regulation, and immunoregulation, indicating that these cells may play a crucial role in metabolic regulation and organ function in healthy humans. Consequently, further investigation is needed into the homeostatic roles of eosinophils and eosinophil-mediated processes across different tissues and their varied microenvironments. Such work may provide important insights into the role of eosinophils not only under disease conditions but also in health. This narrative review synthesizes relevant publications retrieved from PubMed informed by author expertise to provide new insights into the diverse roles of eosinophils in health and disease, with particular emphasis on the implications for current and future development of eosinophil-targeted therapies. © 2021 The Authors

Disciplines :

Cardiovascular & respiratory systems

Author, co-author :

Wechsler, M.E.; Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, United States

Munitz, A.; Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Ackerman, S.J.; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago

Drake, M.G.; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland

Jackson, D.J.; Guy's Severe Asthma Centre, Guy's and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom, Asthma UK Centre, School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Wardlaw, A.J.; Institute for Lung Health, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

Dougan, S.K.; Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, United States

Berdnikovs, S.; Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States

Schleich, FLorence ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège - CHU > > Service de pneumologie - allergologie

Matucci, A.; Immunoallergology Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

More authors (5 more)

Language :

English

Title :

Eosinophils in Health and Disease: A State-of-the-Art Review

Publication date :

2021

Journal title :

Mayo Clinic Proceedings

ISSN :

0025-6196

Publisher :

Elsevier Ltd

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

2694 - 2707

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Funding text :

Editorial support (in the form of writing assistance, including preparation of the draft manuscript under the direction and guidance of the authors, collating and incorporating authors’ comments for each draft, assembling tables and figures, grammatical editing, and referencing) was provided by Laura Gardner, PhD, CMPP, at Fishawack Indicia Ltd, United Kingdom, part of Fishawack Health, and was funded by GlaxoSmithKline .

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