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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Breast milk contains a variety of bioactive substances, among them soluble CD14 (sCD14), which plays an important role in innate immunity. The authors analysed data of a large prospective birth cohort study to examine the determinants of sCD14 in breast milk, and investigated whether breast-feeding practice and sCD14 concentrations in breast milk are determinants of the risk of Atopic Dermatitis and asthma in children. Eight hundred and three mothers and their newborn infants were included in this analysis. (more…)
The prevalence of atopic dermatitis is increasing in Western societies. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that this is due to red ...
The protective effect of breast-feeding on asthma and allergy has been debated for more than 60 years without any hope of a con ...
Atopic Dermatitis is considered to be one of the first manifestations in the atopic march. The aim of this study was to investi ...
If the breast-fed baby is lactose intolerant (usually a temporary condition following intestinal infection at this age), moth ...
If an exclusively breast-fed baby is exhibiting the type of allergic to milk symptoms previously discussed, the mother will i ...
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 ...
Systemic allergic reactions are a relatively common clinical emergency. In their mildest form, they may just manifest as systemic cutaneous reactions with pruritis, allergy urticaria and angioedema. In more severe cases there are cardiorespiratory symptoms such as stridor, wheeze, difficulty in breathing or hypotension. Anaphylaxis has been defined as a ‘severe, life-threatening generalized or systemic hypersensitivity reaction’. The prevalence of systemic allergic reactions is unclear because of the lack of a clear, consistent definition and large prospective population studies. (more…)
Anaphylactic reactions to Hymenoptera venom are relatively uncommon but can be life-threatening: venom immunotherapy is the treatme ...
Definitions of anaphylaxis vary considerably, impeding the comparison of different clinical studies. Different definitions of a ...
It will be helpful for you to have some understanding of the terms that are currently being used by practitioners in the field ...
The safety of immunotherapy has been a constraint on this form of treatment for allergic disease. Although retrospective survey ...
Families frequently do not use their self-injectable adrenaline device, even when their kids is experiencing a potentially life ...
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 ...