CONCLUSIONS. Although all SLIT regimens resulted in an improvement in clinical efficacy, prolonged SLIT was the most effective. The reduction in IL-4 and increase in IL-10 production is consistent with observations from subcutaneous immunotherapy studies and provides insight into the mechanism of SLIT. These cytokine changes might serve as an objective marker of efficacy of SLIT for patients on...

CONCLUSIONS. Although all SLIT regimens resulted in an improvement in clinical efficacy, prolonged SLIT was the most effective. The reduction in IL-4 and increase in IL-10 production is consistent with observations from subcutaneous immunotherapy studies and provides insight into the mechanism of SLIT. These cytokine changes might serve as an objective marker of efficacy of SLIT for patients on...

Japanese goats fed a diet of 50% Timothy grass and 50% concentrate with increasing levels of the anti-methanogenic compound, bromochloromethane (BCM) were investigated with respect to the microbial population and functional shifts in the rumen. Microbial ecology methods identified species that exhibited positive and negative responses to the increasing levels of BCM. The methane-inhibited rumen...

We recently identified T cell epitopes associated with human allergic responses. In a majority of cases, responses focused on a few immunodominant epitopes which can be predicted on the basis of MHC binding characteristics. Several observations from our studies challenged the assumption that T cell epitopes are derived from the same allergen proteins that bind IgE. Transcriptomic and proteomics...

Type I hypersensitivity is driven by allergen specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE) and thus sIgE represents a marker for modern allergy diagnosis. Recently, a rapid assay for the detection of sIgE, termed as (Allergy Lateral Flow Assay) ALFA, has been developed. The objective of our study is the evaluation of a scanner-based system for the semiquantitative interpretation of ALFA results. Agreement ...

Results At the age 20 years, atopic eczema was equally common despite of atopic heredity. Allergic rhinitis was significantly (p=0.004) more common in children prone to atopy. Atopic eczema at age 2, 7 and 18 years flagged atopic eczema lasting until young adulthood, and predicted later rhino conjunctivitis (60%) and asthma at age 20y (28%). Timothy grass (65%) and birch pollen (55%) sensitizat...

One problem of conventional allergen-specific immunotherapy is the risk of anaphylactic reactions. A new approach to make immunotherapy safer and more efficient might be the application of engineered allergens with reduced IgE-binding capacity but retained T cell reactivity. Using overlapping dodeca-peptides, the dominant T cell epitopes of the timothy grass pollen allergen Phl p 5b were identi...