The Immune System – Multimedia

Response to ragweed allergen provocation in the Red Maple Trials Allergen Challenge Theatre

Over three years, 700 children with a peanut story - either peanut sensitization or peanut allergy- were asked to participate in a database.

We report a more-than-six-year experience with food oral immunotherapy (FOIT) in a private allergy practice setting. Most patients can be desensitized to one or more allergenic foods. Ongoing evaluation and modification of the FOIT procedures improves outcomes and acceptability. FOIT can be successfully performed in an allergy office.

We report on 21 patients who completed FOIT (food oral immunotherapy) escalation followed by a period of maintenance dosing and later underwent a tolerance FC (food challenge). 90% of tested FOIT patients and 94% of patients who met our pre-defined criteria for tolerance FC achieved tolerance to their allergenic food.

Changes in gastrointestinal microbiota have been suggested to drive the increasing prevalence of food allergy. Our aim was to determine the impact of mouse and human intestinal microbiota on modulation of allergic parameters including IgE.

The caruncle is small, pink, globular nodule at the inner corner of the eye. We found the papillary changes of the caruncle corresponds to changes in palpebral conjunctiva seen in allergic conjunctivitis. There may indicate a greater inflammatory response in the caruncle resulting in greater itching in the nasal corners of the eye. Allergists can easily assess the caruncle.

Our data imply an important role for basophils in the evolution of acute IgE-mediated reactions to food allergens.

Dirty ice makers can cause potential health hazards. To prevent any potential contamination, the interior surfaces of the ice machine must be cleaned and sanitized regularly. This report justifies the demand and use of novel equipment that will sanitize the surface of an ice machine continuously. We evaluated the Bi-Polar® unit built by Air Oasis (1.2) in sanitizing the ice machine surface.

We used size-exclusion chromatography coupled with multi-angle light scattering to determine the molar mass and native oligo-meric state of a viral glycoprotein.

3D-NET, “Drug Discovery & Development of Novel Eye Therapeutics”, is a new European research consortium of industry and academic partners focusing efforts to enhance the discovery and development of drugs targeting ocular pathologies that lead to blindness.