Abstract
Bronchial asthma is a heterogeneous disease caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. To determine the genetic components of these diseases and discover the genes and cellular pathways underlying them, genetic studies have been conducted. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) is a test of the association between common genetic variants spreading across the genome and disease in an unbiased and hypothesis-free manner. Comprehensive, well-powered, genome-wide surveys using GWAS have revealed susceptibility loci for bronchial asthma. The findings of GWASs of asthma imply the importance of genes that play a role in communication of epithelial damage to the adaptive immune system and activation of airway inflammation and will be helpful to highlight the genes involved in human allergic diseases. A number of GWASs of allergic diseases have revealed that different allergic diseases share overlapping susceptibility loci. Further studies of these overlapping loci might help to clarify the mechanisms underlying allergic march. Although a more complete collection of associated genes and pathways is needed, biologic insights revealed by GWASs improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of human allergic diseases. Further cross-disciplinary studies combining genetics, immunology, epidemiology, and clinical allergology are necessary to the development of better treatment and preventive strategies.
