Allergy (and clinical immunology)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39560049/ Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2024 Nov;35(11):e14276. doi: 10.1111/pai.14276.Hugh A Sampson, Stefania Arasi, Henry T Bahnson, Barbara Ballmer-Weber, Kirsten Beyer, Carsten Bindslev-Jensen, J Andrew Bird, Katarina Blumchen, Carla Davis, Motohiro Ebisawa, Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn,...

The number of people in England with food allergies has more than doubled between 2008 and 2018, a new study reveals. The researchers, from Imperial College London, found that rates are highest among preschool children, with 4% having a “probable” food allergy.They also found that a third of those...

Anaphylaxis can be defined as ‘a serious life-threatening allergic reaction which usually occurs within few seconds or minutes of exposure to allergic substances.This involves hives, swelling and sudden drop in the blood pressure and sometimes shock.’...

Research from King’s, led by Professor Gideon Lack and Dr Alexandra Santos, has made ground-breaking in-roads to our understanding of food allergy. Their work has changed the global understanding of peanut allergy and informed work on other food allergies, such as eggs, milk, shellfish and tree...

Understanding the relationship between outdoor and food allergies written and reviewed by the leading experts in allergy, asthma and immunology.

There are many different 'tests' available to diagnose food allergy or food intolerance. It can be difficult to know which are reliable or based on science. This fact sheet will examine the tests available and whether they are based on evidence.

Food allergy is a pathological, potentially deadly, immune reaction triggered by normally innocuous food protein antigens. The prevalence of food allergies is rising and the standard of care is not optimal, consisting of food-allergen avoidance and treatment ...

Via Krishan Maggon

Since the publication of the first draft of the human genome, there has been an explosion
of new technologies with increasing power to interrogate the totality of biological
molecules (eg, DNA, RNA, proteins, metabolites) and their modifications (eg, DNA methylation,
histone modifications).

Abstract The influence of vitamin D on human health is strongly associated with tolerogenic immune function, skewing the immune response toward a regulatory phenotype. Ecological and epidemiologica...

Via Krishan Maggon

People are eliminating foods based on BS intolerance tests....

All allergic responses to food indicate the failure of immunological tolerance, but it is unclear why cow’s milk and egg (CME) allergies resolve more readily than reactivity to peanuts (PN). We sought to identify differences between PN and CME allergies through constitutive immune status and...

There is limited evidence on child-focused interventions that promote FAL. There is, therefore, considerable opportunity to co-design and test interventions with children.

Curious about trying an elimination diet and not sure where to begin? This at-home food sensitivity test explores how your body reacts to different foods.

From pollen and pets to food and bugs, find out the most common things that can trigger allergy symptoms in this WebMD slideshow.

Home: Reviews & News: Medical Journal Reviews: 2021: January 2021 Medical Journal Review January 2021 WAO Reviews – Editors' Choice Articles are selected for their importance to clinicians who care for patients with asthma and allergic/immunologic diseases by Juan Carlos Ivancevich, MD, and John J. Oppenheimer, MD - FACAAI - FAAAAI, WAO Reviews Editor.  Asthma and COVID-19: Do we finally have answers? Eger K, Bel EH European Respiratory Journal 2020; in press https:/doi.org/10.1183/13993003.04451-2020 In this paper, Eger and Bel explore the impact of asthma on COVID 19. While it is well known that older age, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes are risk factors of poor COVID-19 outcome, much controversy surrounds asthma’s impact. The focus of this manuscript was 2 papers published in the same edition of the ERJ (Choi et al and Izquierdo et al). In summary, these large-scale studies confirmed previous findings regarding risk for asthma patients to develop (severe) COVID-19 – specifically that asthmatics appear to be slightly more susceptible to contracting COVID-19, but severe disease progression does not seem to be related to medication use, including asthma biologics, but rather linked to older age and co-morbidities. The authors stress the fact that often when examining studies of COVID-19 and asthma, potential bias factors have not been considered, leaving many questions unanswered. Furthermore, large-scale, multinational real-life studies with detailed information on asthma phenotype and medication usage in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 would be ideal to aid us in resolving these questions. The Metabolomics of Childhood Atopic Diseases: A Comprehensive Pathway-Specific Review Schjødt MS, Gürdeniz G, Chawes B Metabolites 2020;10(12):511 https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10120511 Asthma, allergic rhinitis, food allergy, and atopic dermatitis are common childhood diseases with several different underlying mechanisms, i.e., endotypes of disease. In this review, the authors stress that metabolomics has the potential to identify disease endotypes, which could beneficially promote personalized prevention and treatment. They do a wonderful job of reviewing the metabolomics literature in children with atopic diseases, focusing on tyrosine and tryptophan metabolism, lipids (particularly, sphingolipids), polyunsaturated fatty acids, microbially derived metabolites (particularly, short-chain fatty acids), and bile acids. Specifically, tyrosine, 3-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, N-acetyltyrosine, tryptophan, indolelactic acid, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, p-Cresol sulfate, taurocholic acid, taurochenodeoxycholic acid, glycohyocholic acid, glycocholic acid, and docosapentaenoate n-6 were identified in at least two studies as being impactful. They stress that altered metabolic pathways highlight some of the underlying biochemical mechanisms leading to these common childhood disorders, which in the future could provide utility in clinical practice. Much further work on this topic is still needed. Helicobacter pylori and skin disorders: a comprehensive review of the available literature Guarneri C, Ceccarelli M, Rinaldi L, Cacopardo B, Nunnari G, Guarneri F European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences 2020;24(23):12267-12287 https://www.doi.org/10.26355/eurrev_202012_24019 Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacterium identified for the first time about 30 years ago and commonly considered as the main pathogenic factor of gastritis and peptic ulcer. Since then, it was found to be associated with several gastrointestinal and extra-gastrointestinal diseases, including skin disorders such as chronic urticaria, rosacea, lichen planus, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, pemphigus vulgaris, vitiligo, primary cutaneous MALT-type lymphoma, sublamina densa-type linear IgA bullous dermatosis, primary cutaneous marginal zone B-cell lymphomas, and cutaneous T-cell pseudolymphoma. The aim of this review is to summarize the available studies regarding the topic and draw possible conclusions. The authors found that, overall, further clinical and laboratory studies are needed to assess the real plausibility and relevance of these associations, as well as the possible role of Helicobacter pylori with the underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Allergy prevention: An overview of current evidence Royal C, Gray C Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 2020;93(5):689-698 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7757062/ There has been a rapid rise in allergic disorders worldwide, which has resulted in increased research into the determinants of allergy development in attempt to identify factors that may be manipulated to mitigate risk. Present literature demonstrates that an opportune window in immunological development appears to exist in early life, whereby certain exposures may promote or prevent the development of an allergic disposition. Furthermore, factors that affect the composition and diversity of the microbiome in early life may also be impactful. In this review, the authors explore the current literature and recommendations relating to exposures that may prevent allergy development or promote tolerance. They note several risk factors, including delivery by caesarean section, omission of breastfeeding, vitamin D insufficiency, and environmental exposures, such as cigarette smoke exposure, all increase the risk of an allergic predisposition. Likewise, they note several protective factors, including dietary diversity during pregnancy, lactation, and in infancy is protective. They also note that recommendations for food-allergen exposure have shifted from delayed introduction to early introduction as a tolerance-inducing strategy. Supplements such as probiotics and vitamins during pregnancy and infancy have yet to produce conclusive results for allergy prevention. Finally, they note that emollient use in infancy has not been shown to be protective against eczema or food allergy. The airways microbiome of individuals with asthma treated with high and low doses of inhaled corticosteroids Martin MJ, Zain NMM, Hearson G, Rivett DW, Koller G et al PLoS One 2020;15(12):e0244681 https://www.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244681 Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are the mainstay of asthma treatment, but evidence suggests a link between ICS usage and increased rates of respiratory infections. In this study, Martin and colleagues assessed the composition of the asthmatic airways microbiome in patients taking low and high dose ICS and the stability of the microbiome over a 2-week period. Sputum from each subject underwent DNA extraction, amplification and 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the bacterial component of the microbiome. Nineteen subjects returned for further sputum induction after 24 h and 2 weeks. A total of 5,615,037 sequencing reads revealed 167 bacterial taxa in the asthmatic airway samples, with the most abundant being Streptococcus spp. No significant differences in sputum bacterial load or overall community composition were seen between the low- and high-dose ICS groups; however, Streptococcus spp. showed significantly higher relative abundance in subjects taking low-dose ICS (p = 0.002). Furthermore, Haemophilus parainfluenzae was significantly more abundant in subjects on high-dose fluticasone propionate compared to those on high-dose budesonide (p = 0.047). There were no statistically significant changes in microbiota composition over a 2-week period. The authors note that the clinical implications for patients are not known, but suggest that this does provide a possible explanation for the increased risk of pulmonary infection seen in asthma and COPD, particularly with FP.  More research is needed.

Abstract Background Oral immunotherapy (OIT) for food allergy improves the quality of life (QOL) of children from parental perspective but little is known about the child perception. Methods The Fo...