The state of anti-infection protection in children with allergic rhinitis in conditions of the aerogenic exposure to technogenic chemicals

Introduction. At present, incidence of allergic rhinitis is growing steadily among children; the disease is caused by diverse factors.

Materials and methods. We examined one hundred forty eight children aged of 6–16 yeass, suffered from allergic rhinitis. They lived in an area where in ambient air benzene, formaldehyde, manganese, and chromium were detected in concentrations equal to 1.0–4.8 average annual MPC (the observation group) or in a reference area where the level of the analyzed chemicals were up to 3.4 times lower. The children underwent clinical examination, laboratory tests, and chemical-analytic tests of biological media (blood).

Results. Upon exposure to airborne technogenic chemicals, children with allergic rhinitis had chemical contamination of their biological media with benzene, formaldehyde, manganese, and chromium in levels up to 1.8 times higher than the same indices in the reference group. Frequent rhinitis, stuffed nose and morning cough in autumn and winter were established in 41.1–43.1% of the children in the observation group; ⅔ had pronounced allergic manifestations upon contacts with an allergen. Monocytosis was found in 21.9% of the exposed children; interleukin-4 and IgG production was elevated in 17.6% of the cases, with likelihood of the latter being 3.8 times higher against the reference group. The children from the observation group were also found to have elevated production of allergen-specific IgE antibodies to Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans and sensitization to mold fungi mixtures. Upon exposure to airborne technogenic chemicals, each second child had elevated levels of IgG antibodies to simplex herpes virus, type 1 and 2.

Limitations. Children aged 6–16 years were examined.

Conclusion. Children with allergic rhinitis who live under exposure to airborne technogenic chemicals become more susceptible to infectious agents due to developing infection-inflammatory responses in the upper airways. This elevated susceptibility involves activated production of antibodies to bacterial and fungi allergens and persistent herpesvirus infection as well as more frequent exacerbations of the diseases with pronounced clinical manifestations.

Compliance with ethical standards. The clinical examination was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Federal Scientific Center for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies (the Meeting Report No. 2, 2021) and was accomplished in conformity with the WMA Declaration of Helsinki (amended and supplemented as of 2008), the RF National Standard GOST-R 52379-2005 Good Clinical Practice (ICH E6 GCP). All participants and their legal representatives gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study.

Contributions:
Maklakova О.А. — study concept and design, writing the text;
Valina S.L. — study design and editing the text;
Shtina I.Е. — data collection and analysis.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: July 25, 2025 / Revised: August 25, 2025 / Accepted: September 19, 2025 / Published: October 20, 2025

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