Obesity Can Contribute to Severe Persistent Allergic Rhinitis in Children through Leptin and Interleukin-1β

Abstract

Background: Obesity/overweight is associated with a higher risk of allergic rhinitis (AR) in children. Objective: This study aimed at exploring the mechanisms by which obesity affects the severity of AR through leptin and interleukin (IL)-1β were investigated. Methods: In all, 210 subjects with AR and 82 subjects without AR were included in this study. The levels of leptin and inflammatory biomarkers were measured in the serum to investigate the correlation with the severity of AR. Additionally, we analyzed whether changes in BMI regulate the severity of AR through serial follow-up of obese children. Results: IL-1β, which is a biomarker of active inflammation in AR, was significantly higher in individuals with AR than in those without and higher in subjects in the obesity group than in those in the normal weight group. A regression analysis showed that the leptin level was associated with increased IL-1β expression in children with AR. In the multivariate analysis, only parental AR (9.2-fold increase in risk), elevated leptin (11.3-fold increase in risk), and high expression of IL-1β (5.8-fold increase in risk) emerged as significant risk factors of moderate to severe persistent allergic rhinitis. We also found that children with an increase or decrease in BMI showed changes in IL-1β and AR symptoms, which these changes were dependent on leptin and BMI. Conclusions: These results suggest that obesity is an important risk factor for the exacerbation of symptoms and leptin can exacerbate inflammation as well as severe and persistent symptoms through IL-1β in AR.

Association between overweight/obesity and risk of chronic rhinosinusitis: a prisma-compliant meta-analysis

“…Evidence indicated that leptin could activate eosinophils to markedly induce the release of in ammatory cytokines, such as IL-β, TNF-α, etc. Also, the elevating of leptin levels also may aggravate the severity of ECRS, promote and enhance systemic type 2-biased in ammatory response as well as the development of eosinophilic in ammation in nasal polyps [51,62,63]. While Kanagalingam S et al pointed out that obesity did not affect the severity of sinonasal diseases in asthma patients, which is paradoxical with our results [64].…”

Adipose Tissue Inflammation and Pulmonary Dysfunction in Obesity

“…Of note, treatment of these cells with the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant mitoquinone (mitoQ) significantly decreased the IL-1β and NLRP3 expression that was induced by leptin, suggesting that this adipokine could lead to lung damage through mtROS-NLRP3 signalling [110]. These in vitro findings are consistent with studies conducted in individuals with airway inflammation, where serum levels of both leptin and IL-1β were shown to increase with BMI and were thus higher in subjects with obesity [114].…”

“…Focusing research on subjects with both airway inflammation and obesity, recent studies have shown that IL-1β serum and sputum levels are correlated with BMI and are an important risk factor for the exacerbation of symptoms [114,117]. However, a broad spectrum of other cytokines has also been found to be altered in obesity-related lung diseases.…”

Genetic Loci in Phospholipase C-Like 1 (PLCL1) are Protective Factors for Allergic Rhinitis in Han Population of Northern Shaanxi, China

“…In addition, obesity has an impact on a variety of allergic diseases, including allergic rhinitis, obesity/overweight is identified as a risk factor for AR in children. 21 It is necessary to control the BMI of allergic patients within the normal range. 22 Green et al reported that people who had been diagnosed with allergic rhinitis were exposed to a deteriorating environment for a long time, and the symptoms became worse.…”