Featured Articles
When Hives Aren’t Really Hives: What a Skin Rash May Reveal About the Immune System
Not every itchy, red welt is caused by an allergy. Some rashes that resemble ordinary hives may be signs of blood vessel inflammation, autoimmune disease, or other immune disorders. The difference often lies in how long…
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Fatal Asthma May Be More Than a Disease of the Airways
A rare look across human organs suggests that the most dangerous asthma may involve a breakdown of immune regulation connecting the lungs, lymph nodes…
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In Asthma, How You Feel May Not Reveal What Is Happening in Your Lungs
A large analysis suggests that asthma symptoms and airway inflammation can tell surprisingly different stories, raising questions about how treatment…
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Articles
Asthma Death Rates Are Falling, but a Troubling Pattern Is Emerging Among Younger Generations
Global asthma mortality rates have declined over three decades, yet the number of deaths remains remarkably unchanged. Meanwhile, a study suggests that more rec…
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When “Normal” Lung Function Depends on Race
A change in how lung function is calculated could alter asthma treatment for thousands of Black children A child takes a deep breath and blows as hard as possib…
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How COVID-19 May Nudge the Immune System Toward Autoimmunity
For most people, antibodies are among the immune system’s most useful weapons. They recognize viruses, bacteria and other foreign threats and help remove them f…
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The Gut Chemical That May Help Teach the Immune System Not to Overreact
Butyrate is famous for the smell of rancid butter. Inside the infant gut, however, this pungent molecule may play a very different role, helping the developing…
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The Inhaler Is Part of the Medicine: Why Lower Airway Disease Treatment Should Pay More Attention to Where the Drug Actually Goes
Some inhalers spray medicine into the airways, whereas others depend on the patient's breath to turn a powder into inhalable particles. That seemingly simple di…
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What Happens When You Stop an Antihistamine? Not All Withdrawal Reactions Are the Same
Benadryl, Zyrtec and Xyzal are familiar over-the-counter medicines, but reports of symptoms after stopping them reveal two very different ways the nervous and i…
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When Allergy Cells Invade the Bladder, an Asthma Drug May Help
When bladder inflammation resembles infection or cancer Blood in the urine, pelvic pain and a relentless need to urinate usually prompt a search for infection,…
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Immune Cells Living in the Lungs May Help Explain Genetic Risk for Asthma, COPD and Autoimmune Disease
An analysis of more than one million human immune cells suggests that inherited risk for asthma, COPD and autoimmune disease may be expressed in cells that rema…
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Can Asthma Be Stopped Before It Leaves Permanent Scars? How Anti-IgE Therapy May Change the Disease Itself
For decades, asthma treatment has focused on controlling symptoms, reducing flare-ups, and preserving lung function. Yet many people with persistent allergic as…
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Can Autoimmunity Be Reversed?
An experimental cell therapy reversed newly developed type 1 diabetes in mice by strengthening the immune system’s peacekeepers and persuading its attackers to…
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