Heena Sharma Blog

Turns out, children born in the peak grass pollen season, October and December, may have a greater risk of developing respiratory diseases such as asthma . Led by La Trobe University, a team of local (The MACS study) and international (COPSAC2000 and LISAplus) researchers analysed cord blood collected from hundreds of babies born in Melbourne, Denmark, and Germany. They discovered those born during the peak grass pollen season in both hemispheres had high immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels in umbilical cord blood - a marker used to predict the development of allergic diseases. Lead researcher, Bircan Erbas from La Trobe's School of Psychology and Public Health, said the aim of the study was to determine the effect of exposure to high grass pollens during pregnancy and soon after birth. Read Complete Article 

Turns out, asthma patients with a specific genetic profile exhibit more intense symptoms of asthma following exposure to vehicular pollution. According to researchers at the National Institutes of Health, asthma patients who lack this specific genetic profile do not have the same sensitivity to vehicular pollution and do not experience worse asthma symptoms. The scientists stated that the results were based on genetic variation, the subtle differences in DNA that make each person unique. They further added that to understand the concept, one should think of human genes, which are made up of DNA base pairs A, C, G, and T, as written instructions for making proteins. "All humans have the same genes, in other words, the same basic instructions, but in some people, one DNA base pair has been changed. This common type of genetic variation is called a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP, and it can alter the way proteins are made and make individuals more or less prone