Majority of shrimp-allergic patients are allergic to mealworm

Henrike Broekman, MD ∗,

,

 Kitty C. Verhoeckx, PhD ∗

,

 Constance F. den Hartog Jager, BSc

,

 Astrid G. Kruizinga, PhD

,

 Marieke Pronk-Kleinjan, RN

,

 Benjamin C. Remington, PhD

,

 Carla A. Bruijnzeel-Koomen, MD, PhD

,

 Geert F. Houben, PhD

,

 André C. Knulst, MD, PhD

∗These authors contributed equally to this work.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2016.01.005

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The growing world population motivates the exploration of new sustainable protein sources to ensure food security. Insects such as mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) are promising candidates, with active ongoing marketing efforts within America and Europe. This warrants assessment of the potential risks. Toxicologic and microbiological risks were assessed previously,^1,2 but not the potentially allergenic risks. Pilot results³ suggest that shrimp-allergic patients might be at risk for mealworm allergy because IgE binding to tropomyosin and arginine kinase (major shellfish allergens) and sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein and myosin light chain (minor shell fish allergens) was detected.

Epithelium-generated neuropeptide Y induces smooth muscle contraction to promote airway hyperresponsiveness

Shanru Li,1,2,3 Cynthia Koziol-White,1,4 Joseph Jude,1,4 Meiqi Jiang,1,4 Hengjiang Zhao,1,4Gaoyuan Cao,1,4 Edwin Yoo,1,4 William Jester,1,4 Michael P. Morley,1,2,3 Su Zhou,1,2 Yi Wang,1,2,3 Min Min Lu,1,2 Reynold A. Panettieri Jr.,1,4 and Edward E. Morrisey1,2,3,5,6

First published April 18, 2016 - More info

Brief Report Pulmonology

Abstract

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases globally and can be divided into presenting with or without an immune response. Current therapies have little effect on nonimmune disease, and the mechanisms that drive this type of asthma are poorly understood. Here, we have shown that loss of the transcription factors forkhead box P1 (Foxp1) and Foxp4, which are critical for lung epithelial development, in the adult airway epithelium evokes a non-Th2 asthma phenotype that is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) without eosinophilic inflammation.

Assessing biomarkers in a real-world severe asthma study (ARIETTA)

In Press

Roland Buhl

,

 Stephanie Korn

,

 Andrew Menzies-Gow

,

 Michel Aubier

,

 Kenneth R. Chapman

,

 Giorgio W. Canonica

,

 César Picado

,

 Nicolas Martin

,

 Ramon Aguiar Escobar

,

 Stephan Korom

,

 Nicola A. Hanania

Open Access

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2016.04.001

Article Info

Severity and disease control before house dust mite immunotherapy initiation: ANTARES a French observational survey

Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology 2016 12:13

Pascal Demoly, Anne Broué-Chabbert, François Wessel and Antoine Chartier

Abstract

Background

Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) may be prescribed for patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) induced by house dust mites (HDM) whether asthma is present or not. Current guidelines provide insufficient support for therapeutic management strategy of these patients. Allergists however have long-term experience with AIT. This study aims to describe the characteristics of the patients seen in clinical practice with HDM allergy and the process used to determine whether AIT should be initiated.

Asthma in the elderly: a different disease?

Breathe Mar 2016, 12 (1) 18-28

Salvatore Battaglia, Alida Benfante, Mario Spatafora, Nicola Scichilone

DOI: 10.1183/20734735.002816 Published 1 March 2016

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Abstract

Key points

• Asthma in the elderly can be difficult to identify due to modifications of its clinical features and functional characteristics.
• Several comorbidities are associated with asthma in the elderly, and this association differs from that observed in younger patients.
• In clinical practice, physicians should treat comorbidities that are correlated with asthma (i.e. rhinitis or gastro-oesophageal reflux), assess comorbidities that may influence asthma outcomes (i.e. depression or cognitive impairment) and try to prevent comorbidities related to ‘drug-associated side-effects (i.e. cataracts, arrhythmias or osteoporosis).
• “Geriatric asthma” should be the preferred term because it implies the comprehensive and multidimensional approach to the disease in the older populations, whereas “asthma in the elderly” is only descriptive of the occurrence of the disease in this age range.

Cell Therapy for Prophylactic Tolerance in Immunoglobulin E-mediated Allergy

Ulrike Baranyi1

,

 Andreas M. Farkas

,

 Karin Hock

,

 Benedikt Mahr

,

 Birgit Linhart

,

 Martina Gattringer

,

 Margit Focke-Tejkl

,

 Arnd Petersen

,

 Fritz Wrba

,

 Thomas Rülicke

,

 Rudolf Valenta2

,

 Thomas Wekerle2,

1Current address: Cardiac Surgery Laboratory, Department of Surgery.

2RV and TW are co-senior authors.

Open Access

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.03.028

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Highlights

• •Avoidance of IgE-mediated allergy is established by development of a tolerogenic cell-based protocol.
• •Transplantation of syngeneic allergen-bearing bone marrow cells into recipients leads to tolerance towards the introduced allergen.
• •Prevention of T-and B-cell responses and allergic asthma is induced by cell transfer with non-toxic pretreatment.

IgE-mediated allergy affects about 30% of the population in industrialized countries. To prevent allergy we developed a cell-based protocol with the concept to modify body's own cells to express an allergen and to reinfuse those modified cells. This concept leads to avoidance of allergic reactions after allergen contact such as specific IgE production and the development of allergic asthma. This is demonstrated in a syngeneic model in mice (i.e. autologous in human) by transplanting bone marrow cells of a unique allergen-expressing transgenic mouse into pretreated recipients.

Treatment of allergic rhinitis and urticaria: a review of the newest antihistamine drug bilastine

REVIEW

Authors Wang XY, Lim-Jurado M, Prepageran N, Tantilipikorn P, Wang DY

 Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management Volume 2016:12 Pages 585—597

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/TCRM.S105189

Abstract: Allergic rhinitis and urticaria are common allergic diseases that may have a major negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Bilastine, a novel new-generation antihistamine that is highly selective for the H₁ histamine receptor, has a rapid onset and prolonged duration of action. This agent does not interact with the cytochrome P450 system and does not undergo significant metabolism in humans, suggesting that it has very low potential for drug–drug interactions, and does not require dose adjustment in renal impairment.

Tolerability of the SQ-standardised grass sublingual immunotherapy tablet in patients treated with concomitant allergy immunotherapy: a non-interventional observational study

• Rainer Reiber,
• Martina Keller,
• Winfried Keller,
• Hendrik WolfEmail author,
• Jörg Schnitker and
• Eike Wüstenberg

Clinical and Translational Allergy20166:9

DOI: 10.1186/s13601-016-0097-8

Abstract

Background

The majority of allergic patients are poly-sensitized. For causal treatment by allergy immunotherapy (AIT) a single or few allergen products containing the clinically most relevant allergens are applied, but few data on tolerability of multiple application of AIT is available. The aim of our study was to investigate safety and tolerability in patients who started treatment by sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) with the standardised SQ® grass SLIT-tablet and were treated with concomitant AIT products.