
Allergen-specific immunotherapy is highly effective in the treatment of IgE-mediated allergy diseases such as rhinitis, conjunctivitis, asthma, and venom allergy hypersensitivity. It is the only treatment that leads to lifelong tolerance against previously disease-causing allergens due to restoration of the normal immunity. (more…)
Allergen-specific immunotherapy aims to correct the underlying immune imbalance associated with specific immunotherapy allergic rhi ...
Histamine is a low-molecular-weight monoamine that binds to four different G-protein-coupled receptors, and has recently been d ...
The precise mechanisms underlying the effects of Specific Immunotherapy are not well understood but several studies have shown ...
Treg cells or regulatory T cells constitute a large population of cellular infiltrate in atopic/allergic inflammation and a dys ...
The immunologic mechanisms of sublingual immunotherapy are less established. In Cochrane analysis, the authors concluded that t ...

CD14 is part of the receptor complex for endotoxin, which is a component of tobacco smoke. The CD14 gene is located on chromosome 5q, a region previously demonstrated to be linked to asthma when stratified for smoke exposure. This study was designed to extend these findings by determining whether polymorphisms in the CD14 gene are related to this gene–environment interaction on asthma. Puerto Rican (n = 362 trios) and Mexican (n = 259 trios) families ascertained through a child with asthma were studied. (more…)
This study sought to determine the influence of passive exposure to tobacco smoke during childhood on the results of genetic linkag ...
The Tcell Ig domain and mucin domain (TIM) proteins, the genes for which are located on chromosome 5q, have been suggested to b ...
Although ADAM33 was the first gene identified by positional cloning to underlie the risk factor of asthma, attempts to replicate th ...
A previous genome-wide screen for mite-sensitive atopic dermatitis asthma in Japanese families indicated linkage to chromosome 5q33 ...
Increasing evidence demonstrates that cytokines of Th1 and Th2 cells play important roles in allergic disorders. This study exa ...
Avoidance of any one of the individual risk factors associated with childhood asthma has not been successful in preventing its development. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a multifaceted intervention programme for the primary prevention of asthma in high-risk infants at 7 years of age. Five hundred and forty-five high-risk infants with an immediate family history of asthma and allergies were prospectively randomized into intervention and control groups pre-natally. (more…)
The authors investigated whether environmental control during pregnancy and early life affects sensitization and lung function at t ...
Two factors thought to influence the risk factor asthma are the promoting effect of sensitization to house dust mites and the preve ...
The prevalence of atopic dermatitis is increasing in Western societies. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that this is due to red ...
To prevent the development of allergy, allergen avoidance has to be instituted before sensitization has occurred. The specific ...
Exposure to allergens plays a role in the development of BHR and in the chronic inflammatory response seen in asthmatic patients. R ...
Over the last 5 years some studies have suggested that the atopy patch test (APT) may be a useful test in atopic dermatitis children who have suspected food hypersensitivity and may even obviate the need for oral challenges. An alternative test to oral allergy challenges with high sensitivity and specificity would be helpful in the diagnosis of food hypersensitivity. (more…)
One of the popular allergy testing besides food allergy testing is skin allergy testing. Allergy patch test is the most commo ...
Diagnosis of food hypersensitivity is a clinical challenge and the only current definitive test is the Double Blind Placebo-Control ...
This population-based cross-sectional study, funded by a UK government agency, aimed to establish the rate of sensitization to food ...
The diagnostic approach to allergic food reactions comprises three steps. The first step includes the medical allergy history, ...
The food eating challenges materials used at different centers vary considerably. Some centers use freeze-dried foods, some use con ...

This study compared the diagnostic value of intradermal tests and patch tests in 20 patients with non-immediate reactions to penicillin (none had IgE antibodies to benzylpenicillin or amoxicillin detectable using a commercial RAST [radioallergosorbent test] method), using 30 patients tolerant to penicillin as controls. Intradermal tests assessed reactivity to injection of major and minor determinants of benzylpenicillin, amoxicillin and ampicillin. Allergy patch testing involved the same hapten solutions used for intradermal testing, either embedded in a patch disk or mixed with petrolatum. (more…)
Suspected drug allergy is not easy to investigate. In the UK, few centers have the necessary facilities and expertise, the evid ...
Patients (and many doctors) frequently use the term ‘allergy’ when referring to any adverse drug reaction, even one that has no fea ...
One of the popular allergy testing besides food allergy testing is skin allergy testing. Allergy patch test is the most commo ...
Allergy skin testing is probably the most susceptible and practical way to monitor for existing allergy sensitivity. Biological ...
Over the last 5 years some studies have suggested that the atopy patch test (APT) may be a useful test in atopic dermatitis childre ...

Being an immunological disease, the characteristics of allergy are those of specificity and memory. Regardless of whether the clinical manifestation is rhinoconjunctivitis, rhinitis, or asthma, the underlying immunological response disorder is based on the adverse reactions of cells in the immune system upon contact with allergens. These cells are specific for epitopes that are structural parts of allergens present in the allergenic source material. Two types of cells (i.e., T cells and B-cells) produce receptor molecules (i.e., T-cell receptors and immunoglobulin [IgE] antibodies) that, through high-affinity interactions with the allergen, efficiently catalyze the presence of even minute amounts of allergens into clinical symptoms, the extreme consequence of which may be life-threatening to the patient. (more…)
Allergen vaccines are complex mixtures of antigenic components produced by the extraction of naturally occurring source materia ...
The production of allergen vaccines imposes a number of constraints on both the selection of source materials and the physicoch ...
The quality of an allergen vaccine is a measure of the complexity of the composition, including the concentration of the variou ...
The potency of an allergen vaccine is the total allergen activity (that is, the sum of the contribution to allergenic activity from ...
Having determined an adequate potency and complexity in composition, an allergen vaccine may still be deficient in the content of m ...

Asthma and allergic diseases are common in both children and adults. Their development depends on an interaction between asthma genetic and asthma environmental risk factors. Genetic manipulation in multi factorial diseases such as asthma is not feasible in the foreseeable future. However, theoretically, environmental exposures can be controlled in an attempt to stem the rising prevalence of these diseases (primary prevention). Environmental exposures may also influence the frequency of symptoms and the requirement for medication in those with established disease. (more…)
Two factors thought to influence the risk factor asthma are the promoting effect of sensitization to house dust mites and the preve ...
To prevent the development of allergy, allergen avoidance has to be instituted before sensitization has occurred. The specific ...
Avoidance of any one of the individual risk factors associated with childhood asthma has not been successful in preventing its deve ...
Allergen exposure plays a role in the development of asthma bronchial hyper-responsiveness and in the acute inflammatory response ...
Exposure to allergens plays a role in the development of BHR and in the chronic inflammatory response seen in asthmatic patients. R ...

The protective effect of breast-feeding on asthma and allergy has been debated for more than 60 years without any hope of a consensus. A major problem is the lack of randomized controlled trials. However, breast-feeding has a number of other benefits and should be recommended irrespective of any effect on asthma or allergy. This is why randomized trials are not considered ethical. Thus, we have to rely on observational studies, which have produced conflicting results. Mothers who do or do not breastfeed differ in several environmental exposures, including socio-economic class, smoking and area of living, which influence indoor and outdoor exposure to pollutants. Despite statistical adjustment for these confounding factors, the evidence is never as robust as it would be with an randomized controlled trial. (more…)
Breast milk contains a variety of bioactive substances, among them soluble CD14 (sCD14), which plays an important role in innat ...
The prevalence of atopic dermatitis is increasing in Western societies. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that this is due to red ...
The prevalence of asthma increases with increasing levels of Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE). However, the effect of early-l ...
If the breast-fed baby is lactose intolerant (usually a temporary condition following intestinal infection at this age), moth ...
Avoidance of any one of the individual risk factors associated with childhood asthma has not been successful in preventing its deve ...

The safety of immunotherapy has been a constraint on this form of treatment for allergic disease. Although retrospective survey studies of fatal reactions have been undertaken in North American practices, few European studies have been reported concerning fatal and non-fatal reactions to immunotherapy.
Allergy immunotherapy is stimulation of your immune system along with progressively growing dosages of the elements to that a person is allergic. (more…)
Allergen immunotherapy has proven to be effective in the management of allergic disease and is the only treatment that is able ...
Allergic rhinitis is a very common problem associated with poor quality of life, reductions in social and work activities and p ...
It is now almost a century since the pioneering work of Noon and Freeman was used to successfully treat hay fever symptoms usin ...
Allergen-specific immunotherapy aims to correct the underlying immune imbalance associated with specific immunotherapy allergic rhi ...
The increasing prevalence of allergic disease in the Western world has led to the concept of the ‘allergic march’ to describe t ...
Cow’s milk is the most frequently encountered food allergen in infancy, and milk allergy is often the earliest indicator that a baby is atopic. Precise figures of the incidence of cow’s milk allergy are hard to find because of the difficulties in obtaining an accurate diagnosis, differences in the populations used for research studies, and disagreement about allergy symptoms (clinical criteria) for the condition. All studies agree, however, that cow’s milk allergy is most prevalent in early childhood with an incidence of 2 to 7.5 percent being reported. (more…)
Cow’s milk is the most frequently encountered food allergen in infancy, and milk allergy is often the earliest indicator that a ...
Cow’s milk allergy results when antibodies against milk allergens are produced by the immune system. Milk allergens are p ...
How frequently do you drink milk everyday or every week? Feel something strange after you drink your last milk? Perhaps you don ...
If the breast-fed baby is lactose intolerant (usually a temporary condition following intestinal infection at this age), moth ...
Terms Indicating the Presence of Cow’s Milk Components Butter, Butter fat, Butter-flavored oil, Butter solids, Whipped but ...
