A role for Leukotriene B4 in the induction of airway hyper-responsiveness was explored through the use of transgenic mice deficient in the BLT1 receptor for LTB4 . Ovalbumin challenge of sensitized wild-type mice resulted in the usual features of experimental asthma, including goblet cell hyperplasia, hyper-responsiveness to inhaled methacholine and elevated BAL fluid concentrations of the Th2 cytokine IL-13. In contrast, BLT1 –/– mice (i.e. genetically modified mice lacking the gene coding for the BLT1 receptor) exhibited significantly lower responses. BLT1 –/– mice also exhibited lower numbers of IL-13-positive T lymphocytes of both the helper (CD4 T Cells) and cytotoxic/suppressor (CD8 + ) types. (more…)
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), originally described as a vascular permeability factor generating tissue oedema, has be ...
Airway hyper-responsiveness in asthma may involve smooth muscle growth, a manifestation of airway remodelling. The involvement ...
IgE plays an important role in allergic asthma. Reducing IgE in the airway mucosa should reduce airway inflammation. Omalizumab has ...
Some features seem to be common to severe asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with reversibility of airflow limita ...
Antihistamines have been shown to be effective in seasonal allergic rhinitis and chronic idiopathic urticaria. They improve qua ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ( ...
Primary immunodeficiencies occur with a frequency approaching that of cystic fibrosis (1:2500 live births). However, because they are perceived to be very rare and usually present with common infections, they are under-diagnosed. Often the diagnosis is not considered until substantial end-organ damage has occurred, by which time definitive treatment is only partially successful in preventing further infections. (more…)
The molecular basis of Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) is unknown and the diagnosis requires the exclusion of other disease ...
Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) is the most frequent primary immunodeficiency in man that requires medical intervention. Mo ...
Drug allergy and adverse drug reactions are common among many people. Those side affect of consuming drugs affecting an about 3 ...
Serodiagnosis of bacterial diseases is of value only in specific circumstances. IgG antibody is long-lived, and its presence, a ...
Antibodies which are also known as immunoglobulin are found in our blood and other bodily fluids. Antibodies are used as a mechan ...
The molecular basis of Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) is unknown and the diagnosis requires the exclusion of other diseases known to cause primary antibody deficiency syndromes, such as X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP). XLP is a rare primary immunodeficiency disease in which severe immune dysregulatory phenomena occur, typically after exposure to Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). The defective gene in XLP is SAP (SLAM associated protein, where SLAM is signalling lymphocyte activation molecule), a small SH2 domain containing protein involved in signal transduction events downstream of the SLAM family of receptors. (more…)
Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) is the most frequent primary immunodeficiency in man that requires medical intervention. Mo ...
Primary immunodeficiencies occur with a frequency approaching that of cystic fibrosis (1:2500 live births). However, because they a ...
Acute phase proteins and the acute phase response in general arc stably conserved in evolution and are universal within each specie ...
Most acute phase proteins are synthesized in the liver, although the genes for some are also expressed in cells and tissues els ...
The Tcell Ig domain and mucin domain (TIM) proteins, the genes for which are located on chromosome 5q, have been suggested to b ...
IgE plays an important role in allergic asthma. Reducing IgE in the airway mucosa should reduce airway inflammation. Omalizumab has significant anti-inflammatory effect and reduces serum and airway IgE, but IgE or eosinophils may not be causally linked to airway bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine in mild to moderate asthma. (more…)
Treatment with omalizumab has been shown to reduce serum free IgE concentrations and to have beneficial effects on allergic airway ...
Anti-IgE therapy could be particularly beneficial for patients with concomitant asthma and rhinitis as it targets a common fact ...
Patients with severe persistent asthma who are inadequately controlled despite Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2002 step 4 ther ...
Tumour Necrosis Factor is a pro-inflammatory cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of asthmatic airway inflammation, hyper-react ...
Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) is a major therapeutic target in a range of chronic inflammatory disorders involving neutr ...