{"id":11949,"date":"2023-03-31T07:50:48","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T05:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/2023\/03\/31\/investigadores-de-la-ull-lideran-los-mayores-estudios-realizados-sobre-las-bases-geneticas-asociados-con-el-asma\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T09:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:34:46","slug":"investigadores-de-la-ull-lideran-los-mayores-estudios-realizados-sobre-las-bases-geneticas-asociados-con-el-asma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/2023\/03\/31\/investigadores-de-la-ull-lideran-los-mayores-estudios-realizados-sobre-las-bases-geneticas-asociados-con-el-asma\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers from the ULL are leading the largest studies ever conducted on the genetic basis associated with asthma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asthma is a respiratory disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the airways and symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest pain. More than 330 million people worldwide have asthma, and it causes approximately 500,000 deaths annually. Currently available treatments are not effective for all patients, and some may experience a worsening of symptoms, leading to asthma attacks or exacerbations, which can be life-threatening and significantly reduce quality of life.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that approximately two out of every ten Canary Islanders have asthma, a figure that is almost double the Spanish average. The development of this disease is influenced by multiple factors, such as genetics, exposure to environmental factors (such as tobacco, allergens, and pollutants), and even the collection of microorganisms that inhabit the human body, known as the human microbiome.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the group Genomics and Health<\/a> Researchers from the University of La Laguna have published four studies in high-impact international journals in the fields of pediatric, allergic, and respiratory diseases. All of these works have also been selected by the editorial teams of their respective journals as high-quality articles. These studies were developed under a national research project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), led by [name of researcher\/director]. M\u00aa del Mar del Pino Yanes<\/a> y Fabian Lorenzo Diaz<\/a>, researchers from the Genetics area of the University of La Laguna.<\/p>\n

This project has focused on identifying genetic factors and changes in the bacterial composition of the airways involved in the occurrence of asthma exacerbations. This has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of researchers and healthcare professionals from several hospitals in the Canary Islands and the Basque Country. The group has recruited more than 500 asthma patients in Spain, who are included in a new cohort called GEMS<\/a> (Genomics and Metagenomics of Asthma Severity), which has been included in three of the published works.<\/p>\n

Studies aimed at identifying the genetic variants involved in asthma exacerbations were developed as part of Esther Herrera Luis's doctoral thesis, whose research excellence was recently recognized with the 2022 Doctoral Prize from the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain. Two of these studies, published in the journals Pediatric Allergy and Immunology<\/a> y Thorax<\/a>, They have focused on the search for genetic variants related to asthma exacerbations in Latin American and African American individuals, describing risk factors specific to these populations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mar\u00eda del Mar del Pino and Fabi\u00e1n Lorenzo, researchers from the University of La Laguna and leaders of the publications.<\/p><\/div>\n

The third article, published in the magazine Pediatric Allergy and Immunology<\/a>, This represents the largest genomic study of asthma exacerbations published to date worldwide, including more than 46,000 asthma patients from different regions of the world. Coordinated by the University of La Laguna, the study involved more than 50 prestigious international research centers and hospitals. The analysis of more than nine million data points in the genome revealed, for the first time, the association of two genetic variants with the risk of asthma exacerbations. These variants, in addition to exerting a biological function by regulating DNA methylation and gene expression in blood cells, showed similar and consistent effects in individuals of European, Singaporean, Latin American, and African American descent.<\/p>\n

The study of the microbiome and its influence on asthma exacerbations is part of the doctoral thesis being developed by Javier P\u00e9rez Garc\u00eda. This study was published in the journal The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology<\/a>, Massive DNA sequencing techniques have been used to determine the bacterial composition of saliva, nasal passages, and pharyngeal cells in asthmatic patients participating in the GEMAS study. Researchers have discovered that a microbiome with a greater number of different bacteria is associated with a lower risk of asthma exacerbations. Furthermore, they have identified 18 bacterial genera with a protective effect against exacerbations, which may have potential therapeutic applications as probiotics.<\/p>\n

They have also demonstrated that salivary bacterial composition could be combined with clinical and genetic data to predict the occurrence of exacerbations. This work has been recognized by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and was awarded best oral presentation on asthma at the 55th National Congress of the Spanish Society of Thoracic Pulmonology.<\/p>\n

All these studies have contributed to the identification of biomarkers associated with asthma exacerbations. These genetic markers and changes in the microbiome could be used in the future to improve the clinical management of asthma exacerbations, from prevention to treatment. The Genomics and Health group at the University of La Laguna (ULL) continues to work along these lines, seeking to evaluate how genetics regulates microbiome composition and how this interaction might be involved in exacerbations. Mar\u00eda del Mar Del Pino Yanes has received new funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to continue this line of research, in this case evaluating the role of epigenetics in asthma exacerbations.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asthma is a respiratory disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the airways and symptoms such as\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,37,10],"tags":[2894,4852,4853,4854],"class_list":["post-11949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destacado","category-investigacion","category-portada-ull","tag-asma","tag-fabian-lorenzo-diaz","tag-ma-del-mar-del-pino-yanes","tag-microbioma-humano"],"acf":[],"primary_category":null,"featured_image_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/genomic-300x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11951,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11949\/revisions\/11951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}