The Exposome Applied: A Step toward Defining the Totality of Environmental Exposures in Asthma

A prevalent noncommunicable disease and a significant global public health issue is asthma. We have made little headway in lowering asthma morbidity despite the availability of very effective controller drugs, particularly among high-risk groups like children and minority groups residing in high-poverty, urban districts. To lessen the burden of asthma on the world's health system and health disparities, it is crucial to identify preventive risk factors. Asthma risk is largely attributed to unknown environmental variables, with hereditary factors accounting for only 40 - 60% of the total risk. The majority of earlier studies focused on traditional exposure science and concentrated on the link between asthma and a single or small number of exposures. In this journal issue, Guillien and coworkers have taken a more all-encompassing approach by investigating the link between the exposome and asthma. From conception until death, all of a person's environmental (i.e., nongenetic) exposures interact with underlying genetic susceptibility characteristics to form the exposome.