Progress and challenges in atmospheric biology research of airborne pollen in China

Pollen allergy is one of the most common causes of allergic rhino conjunctivitis and bronchial asthma in Northern China. Data of epidemiological survey from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region demonstrated that the confirmed prevalence of pollen-induced allergic rhinitis can be as high as 18.5%. The peak age range of pollinosis patients is 10–44 years (young and middle-aged adults). Symptoms can last for 2–3 months during summer and autumn pollen seasons each year, severely affecting patients’ quality of life, work efficiency, and academic performance, which makes it a prominent socio-medical issue. As early as the mid-to-late 1980s, the Department of Allergy, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, finished an annual nationwide survey on airborne pollens, conducting a year-long continuous monitoring in 74 monitoring sites in China. The major species and seasonal distribution patterns of airborne pollen in different regions were preliminarily identified in this study. However, over the past 30 years, with rapid socioeconomic and continuous development, acceleration of urbanization and urban greening, changes in afforestation tree species and cultivated crop varieties, windbreak and sand fixation efforts and invasion of foreign harmful plants, the species and quantities of airborne pollens have undergone significant changes across different regions over the past three decades. The results of the first national airborne pollen survey conducted three decades ago no longer accurately reflect the current status of airborne pollen in various regions. Consequently, they cannot serve as a scientific basis for selecting inhaled allergen test panel (in vivo or in vitro) or formulating allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) regimens. In countries and regions with advanced allergology, such as European countries U.S., and Japan, airborne pollen monitoring has become a routine practice in allergy clinics. Well-distributed and appropriately dense airborne pollen monitoring networks have been established in these regions, while pollen maps and calendars have been edited, and real-time airborne pollen data can be provided to healthcare professionals and pollinosis patients via online platforms and new media. Therefore, it is imperative to vigorously strengthen research on aerobiology of airborne pollens in China, establish a well-distributed and appropriately dense national monitoring network of airborne pollen for routine airborne pollen surveillance and simultaneously enhance related basic research, promote interdisciplinary studies and strengthen international exchange and cooperation, providing scientific basis to satisfy clinical requirements of rapidly increasing number of patients with pollinosis and to tackle challenges posed by public health and environmental changes. inthe the the