Cromolyn sodium and nedocromil sodium are inhaled agents that are alternatives to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in the management of mild persistent asthma in children. Both drugs have been shown to possess anti inflammatory properties through nonsteroidal mechanisms, although the exact mechanisms for their actions remain unclear. (more…)
Roflumilast is an oral, once-daily PDE4 inhibitor with antiinflammatory activity in development for the treatment of asthma. Ro ...
Two long-acting ß 2 -adrenergic agonists (LABAs), salmeterol and formoterol, have been demonstrated to be safe and effective ag ...
Exercise-induced asthma is a feeling of shortness of breath, with the presence of cough, wheezing, and chest tightness after physic ...
Maintenance of asthma control by once-daily inhaled ciclesonide nasal spray in adults with persistent asthma. Ciclesonide is an ...
Up to 85% of asthmatics patients have symptoms of wheezing during or after exercise. Moreover, many patients diagnosed with all ...
Current internationally recognized guidelines indicate that symptomatic asthmatics using a low to medium inhaled corticosteroid dose (400–800 µg/day of beclomethasone or equivalent) alone should preferentially be commenced on a long-acting agonist ß2 prior to an leukotriene receptor antagonists LTRA (British guideline on the management of asthma 2003; GINA Workshop Report 2004). However, two recent large trials have performed head to-head comparisons of add-on long-acting ß2 agonist versus LTRA as therapeutic adjuncts to inhaled corticosteroids, using exacerbation frequency (rather than lung function and symptoms) as the primary end point. (more…)
Leukotrienes can be found in the airway and urine following both spontaneous exacerbations of asthma and acute exposure to bron ...
Despite optimum drug delivery and good compliance with inhaled corticosteroids, many patients experience symptoms and exacerbat ...
Two long-acting ß 2 -adrenergic agonists (LABAs), salmeterol and formoterol, have been demonstrated to be safe and effective ag ...
Treating allergic rhinitis may have a downstream effect on concomitant asthma and this may be due to attenuation of the underlying ...
Regular use of ß-agonists has been known to lead to tolerance to their bronchodilator effects. It is not known how quickly toleranc ...
In 2004, there were 2.4 million children aged 5 to 14 years, or 5.9% of this population group, with a self-reported asthma attack, with no decrease in prevalence since 1997 1 in spite of the much improved therapies available. In this interval, the number of physician office visits for asthma doubled, from 1.7 to 3.3 million which many leads to asthma morbidity and asthma mortality. (more…)
Negative family characteristics such as family conflict and family dysfunction discriminated children who died of asthma from c ...
Asthma control is improved by combining inhaled corticosteroids with long acting beta-agonists but patients still require relie ...
Asthmatic children who also have Allergic Rhinitis seem to have higher morbidity and to use more healthcare resources. This was fur ...
What is Flu? Influenza, commonly known as “the flu,” is a contagious disease caused by a virus. It can cause mild to severe ...
Patients with severe persistent asthma who are inadequately controlled despite Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2002 step 4 ther ...
In the UK, Europe and the USA, montelukast is licensed for once-daily oral administration in adults and is also available as a cherry flavored pink tablet or as granules for use in children over the age of 6 months. Zafirlukast is licensed for use in individuals over 12 years of age (Fig above). In some countries such as Japan, another leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRA), pranlukast, is available for use. In the USA, zileuton is licensed for use in those over 12 years of age (Table below). (more…)
Leukotrienes can be found in the airway and urine following both spontaneous exacerbations of asthma and acute exposure to bron ...
Current internationally recognized guidelines indicate that symptomatic asthmatics using a low to medium inhaled corticosteroid ...
A variety of proinflammatory cells, mediators, and cytokines orchestrate the development of airway hyperresponsiveness, which r ...
Despite optimum drug delivery and good compliance with inhaled corticosteroids, many patients experience symptoms and exacerbat ...
Roflumilast is an oral, once-daily PDE4 inhibitor with antiinflammatory activity in development for the treatment of asthma. Ro ...
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 ...
An emerging concept is that pro-inflammatory signals lead to loss of Regulatory T Cells (Treg) function. Pasare and Medzhitov (2003) demonstrated that activation of DCs through TLRs led to the production of signals, including IL-6, which blocked the suppressive effect of CD4+CD25+ Treg. Subsequent studies support these observations. For example in a mouse model of allergic airway disease, IL-6 is proposed to act via two mechanisms to promote disease: direct enhancement of Th2 responses and by overcoming the suppressive function of CD4+CD25+ Treg. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) as well as IL-7 and IL-15 have also been proposed to overcome regulatory activity in other human immunologic diseases. (more…)
Regulatory T cells Treg (picture above) is the existence of suppressor cells, which limit ongoing immune responses and prevent ...
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 ...
Exotoxins are secreted products, usually of bacteria but sometimes protozoa and fungi. They can act in a number of ways:
• Inhibition of protein synthesis. Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the cause of diphtheria, produces a toxin that causes ADP-ribosylation elongation factor-2, thereby stopping protein synthesis. It is extremely potent and one molecule of toxin is capable of killing a cell. Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae and Bordatella pertussis (the cause of whooping cough) also produce toxins that cause ADP-ribosylation of proteins. (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 ...
Exotoxins are noxious proteins secreted by many bacteria. These toxins are often heat-labile and thus can be heat-inactivated f ...
One especially favored target for immune recognition is bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). This macromolecule is found only in ...
Bacteria cause allergic disease because of toxicity, invasiveness, immunopathology, or lends of these three mechanisms. Thus much ...
A few of the best known humoral effectors of innate immunity are listed in Table 1 bellow, along with the types of target molec ...
The pharmacokinetics of pimecrolimus cream 1% and tacrolimus ointment 0.1% in adults with extensive, moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, including systemic absorption, has relevance to patient safety and drug efficacy. Past pharmacokinetic studies have demonstrated that most patients with atopic dermatitis treated with topical calcineurin inhibitors experience negligible systemic absorption, resulting in low or undetectable blood concentrations of the active compound, but have not compared these two agents directly. (more…)
Topical corticosteroids are the usual therapy for patients with atopic dermatitis, but prolonged use can result in skin atrophy ...
Topical corticosteroids are the usual therapy for patients with atopic dermatitis, but prolonged use can result in skin atrophy ...
Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the skin which usually starts in infancy. It is sometimes called ‘atop ...
Atopic Dermatitis is a chronic relapsing skin disease. Several investigations concerning the long-term prognosis of Atopic Derm ...
This study evaluated budesonide formoterol efficacy and safety of a novel asthma management strategy for both maintenance and s ...
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 ...
Allergen exposure plays a role in the development of asthma bronchial hyper-responsiveness and in the acute inflammatory response seen in asthmatic patients. Reduction of house dust mite allergens might lead to better lung function and reduction of asthma symptoms. (more…)
Exposure to allergens plays a role in the development of BHR and in the chronic inflammatory response seen in asthmatic patients. R ...
To prevent the development of allergy, allergen avoidance has to be instituted before sensitization has occurred. The specific ...
Two factors thought to influence the risk factor asthma are the promoting effect of sensitization to house dust mites and the preve ...
Asthma and allergic diseases are common in both children and adults. Their development depends on an interaction between asthma ...
Avoidance of any one of the individual risk factors associated with childhood asthma has not been successful in preventing its deve ...