Background Infants with family history of atopy are considered at high risk for developing allergic disease. Environmental exposures are modifiable risk factors with a potential for intervention to prevent allergy. Children who develop house dust mite (HDM) sensitisation by pre-school age are at higher risk of developing asthma. Prevention of HDM sensitisation in early childhood by immune modul...

OBJECTIVE To determine the use and efficacy of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) for house dust mite (HDM) allergies in Southeast Asian children. DATA SOURCES Aliterature search was performed in Pubmed and the Asian Pacific Journal of Allergy and Immunology. We also evaluated the literature for similar studies performed in Asia. STUDY SELECTIONS Clinical trials involving children that assess ...

INTRODUCTION In Portugal, data on the role of Der p 1 and Der p 2 in patients with house dust mite (HDM) allergy are scarce. Allergen-specific immunotherapy (sIT) is the only treatment that improves symptoms, reduces the need for pharmacological therapy and modifies the natural history of the disease. With this study, the authors aim to understand the local epidemiology and to clarify if the mo...

BACKGROUND There is debate as to whether asthma has distinct atopic and non-atopic forms and whether in epidemiological studies asthma cases should be defined by a physician diagnosis or by self-reported asthma symptoms. METHODS A total of 24,952 people aged 11 and over were surveyed as part of the 1995-6 health surveys for England. Participants were asked if they had experienced wheezing in ...

Although the mechanisms are unclear, rush immunotherapy (RIT) may be effective to treat allergic diseases. We investigated the long-term modifications of cellular immunity as a mechanism of RIT. The RIT group, included 15 house dust mite (HDM)-sensitized asthmatic children, received RIT only with Dermatophagoides farinae (Der f) and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Der p), whereas the control gr...

We studied the amount of house dust antigen in the beds of 55 patients with atopic dermatitis, eleven patients with psoriasis and ten healthy volunteers using a commercial ELISA which can determine the amount of antigen from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, D. farinae and D. microseras expressed as nanogram (ng) antigen per gram of house dust. The World Health Organization has indicated that 10,...

Dermatophagoides farinae is one of the major house dust mite (HDM) species that cause allergic diseases. N-terminally His-tagged recombinant Der f 21 (rDer f 21), a group 21 allergen, with the signal peptide truncated was successfully overexpressed in an Escherichia coli expression system. The purified rDer f 21 protein was initially crystallized using the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion method. ...