Background: The hygiene hypothesis suggests a link between parasitic infections and immune disorders, such as allergic diseases. We previously showed that infection with or systemic application of tachyzoites lysate antigen (TLA) in a prophylactic, but not therapeutic protocol, prevented allergic airway inflammation in mice. Here we tested the effect of prophylactic and therapeutic application of TLA the mucosal route.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe unabated global increase of allergic patients leads to an unmet need for rapid and inexpensive tools for the diagnosis of allergies and for monitoring the outcome of allergen-specific immunotherapy (SIT). In this proof-of-concept study, we investigated the potential of Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, a high-resolution and cost-efficient biophotonic method with high throughput capacities, to detect characteristic alterations in serum samples of healthy, allergic, and SIT-treated mice and humans. To this end, we used experimental models of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic airway inflammation and allergen-specific tolerance induction in BALB/c mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpidemiological and experimental studies have shown an inverse relationship between infections with certain parasites and a reduced incidence of allergic diseases. We and others have shown that infection with Toxoplasma gondii prevents the development of allergy in mice. To establish whether this beneficial effect could be recapitulated by soluble products of this parasite, we tested an extract derived from T.
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