Cathepsin B promotes asthma potentially via macrophage-associated autophagy and apoptosis

Asthma is a chronic airway disease driven by type 2 immune responses, a core mechanism shared across allergic conditions. Cathepsins (CTSs), lysosomal proteases that regulate immune processes such as autophagy, antigen presentation, and cytokine modulation, have been implicated in allergy, but whether specific CTSs-particularly cathepsin B (CTSB)-causally contribute to asthma and through which mechanisms remains unclear. Here, we integrated genetic, transcriptomic, and experimental approaches to