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The future of antigen-specific immunotherapy of allergy

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 2, pages 446–453 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

More than 25% of the population in industrialized countries suffers from immunoglobulin-E-mediated allergies. The antigen-specific immunotherapy that is in use at present involves the administration of allergen extracts to patients with the aim to cure allergic symptoms. However, the risk of therapy-induced side effects limits its broad application. Recent work indicates that the epitope complexity of natural allergen extracts can be recreated using recombinant allergens, and hypoallergenic derivatives of these can be engineered to increase treatment safety. It is proposed that these modified molecules will improve the current practice of specific immunotherapy and form a basis for prophylactic vaccination.

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Figure 1: How allergens induce and maintain allergy.
Figure 2: Assembling complete panels of hypoallergenic allergen derivatives for prophylactic vaccination against allergy.
Figure 3: Proposed action of prophylactic allergy vaccines.

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Acknowledgements

I am supported by grants from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). I thank D. Kraft for being a true mentor, the members of his group for their enthusiastic collaboration and V. Niederberger for help with the illustrations. D. Kraft, K. Roux, C. Ebner and O. Cromwell are acknowledged for their suggestions and critical reading of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Pathophysiology, Molecular Immunopathology Group, University of Vienna Medical School, Vienna General Hospital-AKH, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, Vienna, A-1090, Austria

    Rudolf Valenta

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DATABASES

Entrez

bee-venom phospholipase

Bet v 1

Fel d 1

LocusLink

FcɛRI

FcɛRII

IL-4

IL-5

IL-12

IL-13

OMIM

asthma

atopic dermatitis

FURTHER INFORMATION

Farrp (Food Allergy Research and Resource Program) Allergen Database

Structural Database of Allergenic Proteins, The University of Texas Medical Branch

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Valenta, R. The future of antigen-specific immunotherapy of allergy. Nat Rev Immunol 2, 446–453 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri824

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nri824

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