Immunotherapy (IT) - Twitter summary from EAACI-WAO Congress 2013

This summary was compiled from the tweets posted by allergists/immunologists who attended the EAACI-WAO Congress 2013. The tweets were labeled #eaaciwao2013. The text was edited and modified by me.

IT - differences between US and EU

Dr. Cox: In the US it's very common for allergists to make up their own IT treatments. Almost unheard of in the EU. Companies do it.

In US beta blockers are cautioned when doing IT but in EU guidelines they are contraindicated.

In EU guidelines pregnancy is a contraindication for IT but in US continuing is OK but no updosing.

Lymph node IT

A cat peptide study using 3 shots over 2 months in inguinal node showed efficacy that lasted over 1 year.

Vitamin D

Van Hage's group conjugated vitamin D3 to recombinant Fel d1 in a mouse model and showed increased efficacy of IT.

IT and SLIT for management of asthma

Dr. Calderón: There are multiple studies showing efficacy for SLIT and SCIT in asthma but only GINA guidelines incorporate it.

Grazax Asthma Prevention (GAP) trial will report in 2015 whether early grass SLIT may prevent asthma development.

Biomarkers of successful IT

Main changes are increasing IgG4 and Treg cells along with newly noted changes in IgA and dendritic cells.


Mechanisms of allergen-specific immunotherapy (click to enlarge the image).

SLIT

Dr. Passalacqua: SLIT has been tried as a treatment for latex allergy but is not presently an indication.

There is poor quality evidence from SLIT trials. The GAALEN group in the EU is attempting to standardize SLIT trial methods through a program called CONSORT. When the CONSORT group reviewed all SLIT trials they only found 3 that met their new criteria.

Allergists are on Twitter - follow them

Allergists increased use of Twitter by 470% between 2011 and 2012. The service is very efficient in spreading the news from the annual scientific meetings, for example, 25 allergists reached 250,000 individuals from the 2012 #AAAAI meeting (see the references here).

This summary was compiled from some of the tweets posted by the following allergists:

David Fischer, MD ‏@IgECPD

This is a list of the allergists who used Twitter to post updates from the 2013 #AAAAI meeting. The list is open for edit, please feel free to add your own info.