Welcome to 2020

To mark the last year of the current Clinical and Experimental Allergy editorial team, we have chosen to have a virtual series.1 The series focuses on novel interventional strategies in allergy and asthma. It should highlight the newest approaches explaining the underlying theory and their potential in the clinic. In this issue of the journal we publish the first in the series. Harb and Chatila look at the mechanism of action of Dupilumab which targets IL-4 receptors.2 This effectively blocks the action of both IL-4 and IL-13. Given their central role in allergic responses, it is not surprising that Dupilumab has a potential role in the therapy of many allergic diseases.3 Koźlik et al4 have looked at how evidence of asthma airway remodeling associates with airway pathology and lung function. Airway cross-sectional geometry was defined by CT scan; this has been demonstrated to correlate with airway resistance.5 Fixed airflow limitation was associated with lower lumen area, thickened walls in distal airways, higher blood neutrophilia, plus blood and bronchoalveolar eosinophilia and high circulating periostin and ADAM33. So fixed airway obstruction is associated with Th2 markers as demonstrated in earlier studies.6 Lastly Nwaru et al7 have looked at whether a raised body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased incidence of adult asthma, as well as child and adolescent onset asthma (Figure 1). They used a very large database of height and weight measurements from school and military conscription records from men in Gothenburg, Sweden. The outcomes were incident asthma and rhinitis after 20 years of age. An elevated BMI at 8 was associated with incident asthma and rhinitis while an elevated BMI at 20 years was associated with incident asthma. A small and large change in BMI over puberty were also associated with incident asthma. So changes in body mass index are important for the development of asthma in early adulthood.