Two grass pollen tablets commercially available for allergy immunotherapy display different IgE epitope repertoires.

Background: The distribution of Pooideae species varies across Europe. Especially, Timothy is less represented in Southern than in Northern Europe. Since allergenic cross-reactivity between pollens from different grasses is only partial, grass pollen-allergic patients are expected to display different sensitization profiles, with specific IgE directed against different combinations of allergenic epitopes, depending on their living places in Europe and the grasses they are exposed to.

Efficacy and safety of birch pollen allergoid subcutaneous immunotherapy: A 2-year double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial plus 1-year open-label extension.

Background: Previous clinical trials with birch pollen subcutaneous immunotherapy have been conducted over a 1- to 2-year treatment period and involved mostly a single geographic location.

Objective: This study (EudraCT-Number: 2005-000025-35) intended to evaluate the effect of subcutaneous immunotherapy with high-dose hypoallergenic birch pollen allergoid in patients with confirmed moderate to severe seasonal allergic rhinitis/rhinoconjunctivitis over a 3-year course in 19 European centres.

Methods: Adults with confirmed birch pollen allergy (n = 253) were randomized to preseasonal placebo (n = 129) or active treatment (n = 124).

Sustained efficacy and safety of a 300IR daily dose of a sublingual solution of birch pollen allergen extract in adults with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis: results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Background: Allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC) due to birch pollen is a growing health concern in Europe. Here, we report the efficacy and safety of 300IR birch pollen sublingual solution administered discontinuously for 2 consecutive years to patients with birch-associated allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.

Methods: Birch pollen-allergic adults were randomized in this double blind study to 300IR birch pollen sublingual solution or placebo, daily, starting 4 months before and continuing through the pollen season for two pollen seasons.

EAACI: A European Declaration on Immunotherapy. Designing the future of allergen specific immunotherapy.

Allergy today is a public health concern of pandemic proportions, affecting more than 150 million people in Europe alone. In view of epidemiological trends, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) predicts that within the next few decades, more than half of the European population may at some point in their lives experience some type of allergy.Not only do allergic patients suffer from a debilitating disease, with the potential for major impact on their quality of life, career progression, personal development and lifestyle choices, but they also constitute a significant burden on health economics and macroeconomics due to the days of lost productivity and underperformance.

Anti-apoptotic BFL-1 is the major effector in activation-induced human mast cell survival.

Mast cells are best known for their role in allergic reactions, where aggregation of FcεRI leads to the release of mast cell mediators causing allergic symptoms. The activation also induces a survival program in the cells, i.e.

SQ-standardized sublingual grass immunotherapy: confirmation of disease modification 2 years after 3 years of treatment in a randomized trial.

Background: The main aim of specific immunotherapy is sustained effect due to changes in the immune system that can be demonstrated only in long-term trials.

Objective: To investigate sustained efficacy and disease modification in a 5-year double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, including 2 years of blinded follow-up after completion of a 3-year period of treatment, with the SQ-standardized grass allergy immunotherapy tablet, Grazax (Phleum pratense 75,000 SQ-T/2,800 BAU,(∗) ALK, Denmark) or placebo.

Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multinational, phase III trial included adults with a history of moderate-to-severe grass pollen-induced allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, with or without asthma, inadequately controlled by symptomatic medications.

Long-term clinical efficacy in grass pollen-induced rhinoconjunctivitis after treatment with SQ-standardized grass allergy immunotherapy tablet.

Background: Sustained and disease-modifying effects of sublingual immunotherapy have never before been confirmed in a large-scale randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: We sought to investigate sustained efficacy 1 year after a 3-year period of daily treatment with the SQ-standardized grass allergy immunotherapy tablet Grazax (Phleum pratense 75,000 SQ-T/2,800 BAU; ALK-Abelló, Hørsholm, Denmark).

Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III trial including adults with a history of moderate-to-severe grass pollen induced rhinoconjunctivitis inadequately controlled by symptomatic medications.

Allergy Diagnosis in Children and Adults: Performance of a New Point-of-Care Device, ImmunoCAP Rapid.

Background: : Allergy is a serious problem affecting approximately 1 of 4 individuals. The symptoms with and without allergy etiology are often difficult to distinguish from each other without using an IgE antibody test. The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of a new point-of-care (POC) test for IgE antibodies to relevant allergens in Europe.

Specific immunotherapy to birch allergen does not enhance suppression of Th2 cells by CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells during pollen season.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the suppressive capacity of CD25(+) regulatory T cells on birch allergen-induced T-cell responses during the first birch pollen season after initiation of specific immunotherapy (SIT).

Methods: CD25(pos) and CD25(neg) T cells were purified from blood of birch-allergic SIT patients and birch-allergic controls, stimulated with birch pollen extract, and analyzed for T-cell proliferation and production of interferon gamma (IFN-gamma), interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-10.

Results: We show that allergen-induced proliferation and IFN-gamma production were suppressed equally well by CD25(pos) T cells from SIT patients and controls, while the IL-5 production was not suppressed by either of the groups.

Efficacy of recombinant birch pollen vaccine for the treatment of birch-allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.

Background: Recombinant DNA technology has the potential to produce allergen-specific immunotherapy vaccines with defined composition.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a new recombinant birch pollen allergen vaccine in patients with birch pollen allergy.

Methods: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was undertaken to compare the following 3 vaccines in 134 adults with birch pollen allergy: recombinant birch pollen allergen vaccine (rBet v 1a), licensed birch pollen extract, natural purified birch pollen allergen (nBet v 1), and placebo.

Sublingual grass allergen tablet immunotherapy provides sustained clinical benefit with progressive immunologic changes over 2 years.

Background: This is an interim analysis of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III trial with 3 years of daily treatment with grass tablet immunotherapy (GRAZAX; ALK-Abelló A/S, Hørsholm, Denmark) or placebo, followed by 2 years of follow-up to assess the persistent efficacy.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the efficacy and safety of specific immunotherapy with grass allergen tablets compared with placebo after treatment covering 2 consecutive grass pollen seasons.

Methods: The interim analyses included 351 adult participants with moderate-to-severe allergic rhinoconjunctivitis caused by grass pollen.

Myeloperoxidase as a marker of increasing systemic inflammation in smokers without severe airway symptoms.

Background: There is increasing evidence of systemic inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but there is very little information on the development of systemic inflammation in smokers without severe airway symptoms. In this longitudinal study, we examined whether smokers with mild or no airway symptoms develop signs of systemic inflammation by assessing inflammatory markers in blood over a 6-year period.

Methods: Forty smokers and 28 male never-smokers were investigated in 1995 (year 0) and 6 years later (year 6).

Production of interleukin-12 by monocytes and interferon-gamma by natural killer cells in allergic patients during rush immunotherapy.

Background: Allergen specific immunotherapy modifies the immunologic response to allergen exposure; however, the role of cells composing the innate immune system, such as monocytes and natural killer (NK) cells, in this mechanism is still unclear.

Objective: To examine the effect of rush immunotherapy (RIT) on early allergen-induced cytokine production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells from treated cat- and birch-allergic patients.

Methods: Twelve allergic patients received RIT, and another 4 served as controls.

Once-daily sublingual allergen-specific immunotherapy improves quality of life in patients with grass pollen-induced allergic rhinoconjunctivitis: a double-blind, randomised study.

The effect of sublingual immunotherapy on quality of life (QoL) was examined in patients with grass pollen-induced rhinoconjunctivitis. Patients (n = 855) were randomised to once-daily grass allergen tablets (2,500; 25,000; or 75,000 SQ-T Phleum pratense extract; GRAZAX or placebo. Treatment was initiated 8 weeks before the start of the grass pollen season and continued throughout.

Basophil interleukin 4 and interleukin 13 production is suppressed during the early phase of rush immunotherapy.

Background: Studies using rush immunotherapy (RIT) have shown that rapid protection can be achieved using protocols allowing a fast increment of allergen dose. We examined the early effects of RIT on basophil numbers and expression of CD203c, production of interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 and histamine release by basophils in the peripheral blood of patients treated with immunotherapy and controls.

Methods: Twelve patients treated with RIT and 4 untreated controls were included in the study.

Efficacy and safety of sublingual immunotherapy with grass allergen tablets for seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.

Background: Allergen immunotherapy (desensitization) by injection is effective for seasonal allergic rhinitis and has been shown to induce long-term disease remission. The sublingual route also has potential, although definitive evidence from large randomized controlled trials has been lacking.

Objective: The aim was to confirm the efficacy of a rapidly dissolving grass allergen tablet (GRAZAX, ALK-Abelló, Hørsholm, Denmark) compared with placebo in patients with seasonal rhinoconjunctivitis.

Aqueous two-phase partitioning for proteomic monitoring of cell surface biomarkers in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

For proteomic monitoring of processes such as allergy or inflammation an efficient pre-fractionation strategy is required. We isolated plasma membranes from human peripheral blood mononuclear (PBM) cells by aqueous two-phase partitioning. After 1DE combined with LC-MS/MS, several cell surface marker proteins and in total 60 different plasma membrane proteins (out of 84 identified proteins, i.

Sublingual immunotherapy with once-daily grass allergen tablets: a randomized controlled trial in seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.

Background: Specific immunotherapy is the only treatment modality that has the potential to alter the natural course of allergic diseases. Sublingual immunotherapy has been developed to facilitate access to this form of treatment and to minimize serious adverse events.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of sublingual grass allergen tablets in seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.

The effect of omalizumab on nasal allergic inflammation.

Background: In sensitized patients, coupling between IgE and FcepsilonRI receptors on mast cells leads to release of proinflammatory mediators and a subsequent influx of inflammatory cells to the affected organ. Omalizumab (Xolair; formerly rhuMAb-E25) binds to circulating IgE, thus preventing induction of the allergic process.

Objective: We investigated the effect of treatment with omalizumab on seasonal allergic rhinitis and related changes in inflammatory cell numbers in nasal biopsy specimens.

Effect of 2-year placebo-controlled immunotherapy on airway symptoms and medication in patients with birch pollen allergy.

Background: Birch pollen is a common allergen in northern, central, and eastern Europe. Earlier studies of specific immunotherapy using birch pollen extract were not placebo-controlled or were only preseasonal. Long-term, placebo-controlled studies with subcutaneously administered standardized birch pollen extract are lacking.

Influence of the Priming Effect with Alder Pollen on Nonspecific Bronchial Hyperreactivity of Asthmatics Specifically Allergic to Birch Pollen.

It has been shown that bronchial hyperreactivity in asthmatics specifically allergic to birch pollen is stable during the preseasonal and postseasonal periods and increases during the birch pollen season. Between January and March 1989, warm weather in the southern part of Sweden led to an early emission of hazel and alder pollens. Fourteen asthmatic patients living there were followed and demonstrated an increased nonspecific bronchial hyperreactivity (decreased PC20 methacholine) before the birch pollen season due to a 'priming effect' of related tree pollens.