Last year brought a significant advance in asthma management, unyielding to the pressure of the pandemics. Novel key findings in asthma pathogenesis focus on the resident cell compartment, epigenetics and the innate immune system. The precision immunology unbiased approach was supplemented with novel tools and greatly facilitated by the use of artificial intelligence. Several randomised clinical trials and good quality real‐world evidence shed new light on asthma treatment and supported the revision of several asthma guidelines (GINA, Expert Panel Report 3, ERS/ATS guidelines on severe asthma) and the conception of new ones (EAACI Guidelines for the use of biologicals in severe asthma). Integrating asthma management within the broader context of Planetary Health has been put forward. In this review, recently published articles and clinical trials are summarised and discussed with the goal to provide clinicians and researchers with a concise update on asthma research from a translational perspective.

Nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the medications most commonly used for treating pain and inflammation, are the main triggers of drug hypersensitivity reactions. The latest classification of NSAIDs‐hypersensitivity by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) differentiates between cross‐hypersensitivity reactions (CRs), associated with COX‐1 inhibition, and selective reactions, associated with immunological mechanisms. Three phenotypes fill into the first group: NSAIDs‐exacerbated respiratory disease, NSAIDs‐exacerbated cutaneous disease, and NSAIDs‐induced urticaria/angioedema. Two phenotypes fill into the second one: single‐NSAID‐induced urticaria/angioedema/anaphylaxis, and single‐NSAID‐induced delayed reactions. Diagnosis of NSAIDs‐hypersensitivity is hampered by different factors, including the lack of validated in vitro biomarkers and the uselessness of skin tests. The advances achieved over recent years recommend a re‐evaluation of the EAACI classification, as it does not consider other phenotypes such as blended reactions (coexistence of cutaneous and respiratory symptoms) or food‐dependent NSAID‐induced anaphylaxis. In addition, it does not regard the natural evolution of phenotypes and their potential interconversion, the development of tolerance over time or the role of atopy. Here we address these topics. A state of the art on the underlying mechanisms and on the approaches for biomarkers discovery is also provided, including genetic studies and available information on transcriptomics and metabolomics.

In December 2019, China reported the first cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). This disease, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), has developed into a pandemic. To date, it has resulted in ~9 million confirmed cases and caused almost 500 000 related deaths worldwide. Unequivocally, the COVID‐19 pandemic is the gravest health and socioeconomic crisis of our time. In this context, numerous questions have emerged in demand of basic scientific information and evidence‐based medical advice on SARS‐CoV‐2 and COVID‐19. Although the majority of the patients show a very mild, self‐limiting viral respiratory disease, many clinical manifestations in severe patients are unique to COVID‐19, such as severe lymphopenia and eosinopenia, extensive pneumonia, a “cytokine storm” leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome, endothelitis, thromboembolic complications, and multiorgan failure. The epidemiologic features of COVID‐19 are distinctive and have changed throughout the pandemic. Vaccine and drug development studies and clinical trials are rapidly growing at an unprecedented speed. However, basic and clinical research on COVID‐19–related topics should be based on more coordinated high‐quality studies. This paper answers pressing questions, formulated by young clinicians and scientists, on SARS‐CoV‐2, COVID‐19, and allergy, focusing on the following topics: virology, immunology, diagnosis, management of patients with allergic disease and asthma, treatment, clinical trials, drug discovery, vaccine development, and epidemiology. A total of 150 questions were answered by experts in the field providing a comprehensive and practical overview of COVID‐19 and allergic disease.

The epithelial barriers of the skin, gut, and respiratory tract are critical interfaces between the environment and the host, and they orchestrate both homeostatic and pathogenic immune responses. The mechanisms underlying epithelial barrier dysfunction in allergic and inflammatory conditions, such as atopic dermatitis, food allergy, eosinophilic oesophagitis, allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, and asthma, are complex and influenced by the exposome, microbiome, individual genetics, and epigenetics. Here, we review the role of the epithelial barriers of the skin, digestive tract, and airways in maintaining homeostasis, how they influence the occurrence and progression of allergic and inflammatory conditions, how current treatments target the epithelium to improve symptoms of these disorders, and what the unmet needs are in the identification and treatment of epithelial disorders.