
Negative family characteristics such as family conflict and family dysfunction discriminated children who died of asthma from children with equally severe asthma who did not die. Parenting difficulties have been associated with a higher risk for the development of asthma early in life. In addition, children with the highest risk of developing early-onset asthma were those in families with both parenting problems and high stress. Evidence for a asthma and stress link has been demonstrated through temporal studies, as experiencing an acute negative life event increased children’s risk for an asthma attack 4 to 6 weeks after the occurrence of the event. (more…)
Learning to relax is important not only to release tension or stress but can ease your sinus and help you to copy with it. True rel ...
The two strongest risk factors for asthma in childhood are a family history and immediate hypersensitivity to common allergens. ...
Asthma is a frightening condition. I have lived with asthma symptoms for 17 years and the thought of an allergy induced asthma atta ...
Acupuncture for acne, psoriasis, allergies and related conditions is the current interest of several study groups, to investigate a ...
The genetic basis of asthma heritability has been extensively studied and the studies are yielding some understanding. There is ...

The immunologic mechanisms of sublingual immunotherapy are less established. In Cochrane analysis, the authors concluded that there was an increase in IgG4 but no stable effect on IgE levels in adults. In addition, the induction of allergen-specific IgA has been reported. There are conflicting data concerning lympho-proliferative responses. So far the evidence on changes in Th1/Th2/Treg activity induced by sublingual immunotherapy need to be confirmed. The effects on T-cell reactivity and cytokine secretion show strong variation in a number of studies. (more…)
Allergen-specific immunotherapy aims to correct the underlying immune imbalance associated with specific immunotherapy allergic rhi ...
The precise mechanisms underlying the effects of Specific Immunotherapy are not well understood but several studies have shown ...
The increasing prevalence of allergic disease in the Western world has led to the concept of the ‘allergic march’ to describe t ...
Allergen-specific immunotherapy is highly effective in the treatment of IgE-mediated allergy diseases such as rhinitis, conjunc ...
Histamine is a low-molecular-weight monoamine that binds to four different G-protein-coupled receptors, and has recently been d ...

The intracellular forkhead winged transcription factor Foxp3 (forkhead box P3) appears to be specifically expressed by naturally occurring Treg cells, particularly in mice, although in humans there is evidence of upregulation of Foxp3 in all T cells on activation. Foxp3 is required for the development and function of naturally occurring regulatory t cells (treg) and expression is sufficient to convert non-regulatory CD4+CD25T cells into cells with regulatory activity. Conversion of peripheral CD4+CD25 naive T cells to Foxp3+CD4+CD25 foxp3+ Treg cells can be induced by TGF-ß. In a murine asthma model, these TGF-ß-induced Treg prevented house-dust mite-induced allergic pathogenesis or infection pathogenesis in lungs. A single independent report has suggested that IL-4 and IL-13 also induce Foxp3+CD25+ Treg from CD4+CD25precursors. (more…)
Regulatory T cells Treg (picture above) is the existence of suppressor cells, which limit ongoing immune responses and prevent ...
An emerging concept is that pro-inflammatory signals lead to loss of Regulatory T Cells (Treg) function. Pasare and Medzhitov ( ...
Treg cells or regulatory T cells constitute a large population of cellular infiltrate in atopic/allergic inflammation and a dys ...
The induction of immune tolerance and specific immune suppression are essential processes in the control of immune responses. R ...
Allergen-specific immunotherapy is highly effective in the treatment of IgE-mediated allergy diseases such as rhinitis, conjunc ...

Regulatory T cells Treg (picture above) is the existence of suppressor cells, which limit ongoing immune responses and prevent autoimmune disease, was postulated over 30 years ago. The recent phenotypic and functional characterization of these cells has led to a resurgence of interest in their therapeutic application in a number of immune-mediated diseases. Two broad subsets of CD3+CD4+ suppressive or Treg cells have been described: constitutive or naturally occurring versus adaptive or inducible Treg. (more…)
An emerging concept is that pro-inflammatory signals lead to loss of Regulatory T Cells (Treg) function. Pasare and Medzhitov ( ...
The intracellular forkhead winged transcription factor Foxp3 (forkhead box P3) appears to be specifically expressed by naturall ...
The induction of immune tolerance and specific immune suppression are essential processes in the control of immune responses. R ...
Treg cells or regulatory T cells constitute a large population of cellular infiltrate in atopic/allergic inflammation and a dys ...
Allergen-specific immunotherapy is highly effective in the treatment of IgE-mediated allergy diseases such as rhinitis, conjunc ...

The immune system consists of proteins, cells and organs that are concerned with defense of the individual, primarily against the threat of disease caused by infectious organisms. An infectious organism that causes disease is called a pathogen and the individual (person or animal) that is infected by a pathogen is called the host. Not all infectious organisms cause disease and some are actually beneficial, for example bacteria living in the gut help to digest certain foods. Infectious organisms that help the host are called commensalism organisms. (more…)
The final stage of the disease process (although it may not be the final stage of the infection) is the actual production of di ...
There are thousands of components to the immune system, and during the course of learning about some of these it can appear tha ...
Serodiagnosis of bacterial diseases is of value only in specific circumstances. IgG antibody is long-lived, and its presence, a ...
Routes by which infectious organisms gain entry into the body include the skin, respiratory tract, gastro-intestinal (GI) tract ...
Allergic Reactions For daily life, of course we need our immune system. Without having immune system, we could not survive ...

Normally present at very low levels in plasma, antibodies of the immunoglobulin E (IgE) isotype were first discovered in 1967, decades after the description of IgA, IgG, and IM. IgE antibodies are produced primarily by plasma cells in mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue and their levels are uniformly elevated in patients suffering from atopic conditions like allergic rhinitis, asthma and atopic dermatitis. Production of allergen-specific IgE in atopic individuals is driven both by a genetic predisposition to the synthesis of this isotype as well as by environmental factors, including chronic allergen exposure. (more…)
The precise mechanisms underlying the effects of Specific Immunotherapy are not well understood but several studies have shown ...
Our current knowledge for trigger factor and food allergy intolerance is still in it infancy level. We already known that the aller ...
Treatment with omalizumab has been shown to reduce serum free IgE concentrations and to have beneficial effects on allergic airway ...
A paradigm of immune development underlies allergy development and progression in early childhood. Briefly, the immune system o ...
IgE plays an important role in allergic asthma. Reducing IgE in the airway mucosa should reduce airway inflammation. Omalizumab has ...

The Tcell Ig domain and mucin domain (TIM) proteins, the genes for which are located on chromosome 5q, have been suggested to be involved in allergic disease. This study examined allergies genetic association of sequence variants of the TIM1 and TIM3 genes in an African-American population. Case–control and family based association analyses were performed for three SNPs each in the TIM1 and TIM3 genes, and an insertion/deletion polymorphism in Tcell Ig domain and mucin domain 1. (more…)
A previous genome-wide screen for mite-sensitive atopic dermatitis asthma in Japanese families indicated linkage to chromosome 5q33 ...
Although ADAM33 was the first gene identified by positional cloning to underlie the risk factor of asthma, attempts to replicate th ...
CD14 is part of the receptor complex for endotoxin, which is a component of tobacco smoke. The CD14 gene is located on chromoso ...
Increasing evidence demonstrates that cytokines of Th1 and Th2 cells play important roles in allergic disorders. This study exa ...
The T-bet (T-box 21) gene (TBX21) encodes a transcription factor, T-box expressed in T cells, which has been implicated in asthma t ...

Roflumilast is an oral, once-daily inhibitor of phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4) that prevents the breakdown of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels, leading to inhibition of pro-inflammatory signalling. This study investigated the effects of repeated doses of 250 or 500 µg of roflumilast on airway asthma responses to allergen. (more…)
Roflumilast is an oral, once-daily PDE4 inhibitor with antiinflammatory activity in development for the treatment of asthma. Ro ...
Marimastat is a synthetic broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor. This study assessed the anti-inflammatory effect ...
Treating allergic rhinitis may have a downstream effect on concomitant asthma and this may be due to attenuation of the underlying ...
Tumour Necrosis Factor is a pro-inflammatory cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of asthmatic airway inflammation, hyper-react ...
Despite optimum drug delivery and good compliance with inhaled corticosteroids, many patients experience symptoms and exacerbat ...

Allergic rhinitis is a very common problem associated with poor quality of life, reductions in social and work activities and poor interpersonal relationships. The main goal of the management of allergic rhinitis is to improve the quality of life. Immunotherapy is a specific therapy for allergic rhinitis and several reports have documented the safety and efficacy of this treatment . Safety has been a key issue in immunotherapy and various modalities are being investigated to make allergy immunotherapy more tolerable and safe to administer. (more…)
The safety of immunotherapy has been a constraint on this form of treatment for allergic disease. Although retrospective survey ...
Specific immunotherapy has been widely used to treat allergic rhinitis symptoms. As with any other form of specific immunotherapy, ...
Allergen-specific immunotherapy aims to correct the underlying immune imbalance associated with specific immunotherapy allergic rhi ...
It is now almost a century since the pioneering work of Noon and Freeman was used to successfully treat hay fever symptoms usin ...
Allergen immunotherapy has proven to be effective in the management of allergic disease and is the only treatment that is able ...

Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) is a major therapeutic target in a range of chronic inflammatory disorders involving neutrophils and its excess production is characterized by a Th1-type immune response. Asthma is regarded as a Th2-type disorder when associated with atopy, (more…)
Tumour Necrosis Factor is a pro-inflammatory cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of asthmatic airway inflammation, hyper-react ...
Roflumilast is an oral, once-daily inhibitor of phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4) that prevents the breakdown of cyclic adenosine ...
IgE plays an important role in allergic asthma. Reducing IgE in the airway mucosa should reduce airway inflammation. Omalizumab has ...
Lidocaine is a local anaesthetic that possesses the ability to potently shorten eosinophil survival. This study assessed the sa ...
An emerging concept is that pro-inflammatory signals lead to loss of Regulatory T Cells (Treg) function. Pasare and Medzhitov ( ...