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 ...
One especially favored target for immune recognition is bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). This macromolecule is found only in the outer lipid bilayer that surrounds the cell walls of gram-negative bacteria, such as Neisseria, Salmonella, and Escherichia coli. Each molecule of bacterial lipopolysaccharide consists of a core carbohydrate linked on one side to a phospholipid (called lipid A) that is anchored in the bilayer and on the other side to a long polysaccharide chain (called the O sidechain) that extends outward from the bacterial surface (Figure 1 bellow). The sequence of sugars making up the O sidechain is species-specific and highly variable, even within a single bacterial genus: For example, more than 1000 variants in Salmonella are known. (more…)
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) act as receptors for numerous stimuli of immune cells, including bacterial cell wall constituents (l ...
Bacteria cause allergic disease because of toxicity, invasiveness, immunopathology, or lends of these three mechanisms. Thus much ...
Exotoxins are noxious proteins secreted by many bacteria. These toxins are often heat-labile and thus can be heat-inactivated f ...
A few of the best known humoral effectors of innate immunity are listed in Table 1 bellow, along with the types of target molec ...
Breast milk contains a variety of bioactive substances, among them soluble CD14 (sCD14), which plays an important role in innat ...
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 ...
Diagnosis of food hypersensitivity is a clinical challenge and the only current definitive test is the Double Blind Placebo-Controlled Food Challenges. Although the Double Blind Placebo-Controlled Food Challenges is the current gold standard, it is difficult to perform and is very time-consuming. Hence, researchers are continually evaluating new tests and assessing the value of the available serum tests. (more…)
The food eating challenges materials used at different centers vary considerably. Some centers use freeze-dried foods, some use con ...
Over the last 5 years some studies have suggested that the atopy patch test (APT) may be a useful test in atopic dermatitis childre ...
The diagnostic approach to allergic food reactions comprises three steps. The first step includes the medical allergy history, ...
This population-based cross-sectional study, funded by a UK government agency, aimed to establish the rate of sensitization to food ...
If you suspect that certain foods trigger wheezing or asthma symptoms in your child, your first action should be a consultation ...
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 ...
The prevalence of atopic dermatitis is increasing in Western societies. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that this is due to reduced exposure to environmental allergens and infections during early life. The authors examined factors associated with a diagnosis of atopic dermatitis at 3.5 years of age, especially those factors implicated by the hygiene hypothesis. The Auckland Birthweight Collaborative study is a case–control study of risk factors for small-for-gestational-age babies. Cases were born at term with birth weight at or below the 10th centile; controls were appropriate for gestational age, with birth weight above the 10th centile. (more…)
Atopic Dermatitis is considered to be one of the first manifestations in the atopic march. The aim of this study was to investi ...
Breast milk contains a variety of bioactive substances, among them soluble CD14 (sCD14), which plays an important role in innat ...
Atopic Dermatitis is a chronic relapsing skin disease. Several investigations concerning the long-term prognosis of Atopic Derm ...
Avoidance of any one of the individual risk factors associated with childhood asthma has not been successful in preventing its deve ...
Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the skin which usually starts in infancy. It is sometimes called ‘atop ...
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 ...
A paradigm of immune development underlies allergy development and progression in early childhood. Briefly, the immune system of the fetus is maintained in a tolerogenic state, preventing adverse immune responses and rejection between the mother and fetus. Placental interleukin-10 (IL-10) suppresses the production of immune-potentiating inter-feron gamma (IFN-y) by fetal immune cells. IFN-y downregulates the production of pro-allergic cytokines, such as IL-4 and IL-13. (more…)
In the Tucson CRS study, about 50% of young children experienced a period of recurrent wheezing and/or coughing in the first 6 ...
Treatment with omalizumab has been shown to reduce serum free IgE concentrations and to have beneficial effects on allergic airway ...
The precise mechanisms underlying the effects of Specific Immunotherapy are not well understood but several studies have shown ...
Recently, UK Department of Health has circulated advice aimed at reducing the development of peanut allergy. The advice, base ...
Exposure and allergic sensitization to cockroach was associated with a significantly greater risk of asthma hospitalization and ...