Advances in Allergy Immunotherapy and Vaccination

Dear Colleagues,

Allergic diseases are becoming increasingly detrimental to global health and economics. Classical allergic inflammation is caused by elevated allergen-specific IgE responses that promote basophil and mast cell degranulation upon encountering allergens. The only established disease-modifying treatment for allergic diseases—allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT or SIT)—is not available for all types of allergies and still requires optimization from an efficacy/safety standpoint, as it currently requires a multitude of allergen extract injections over long time periods. Mechanistically, AIT aims to shift the type 2 inflammatory immune response towards a tolerant outcome. Though the detailed mechanisms of AIT are still not completely understood, interesting hallmarks that are associated with successful AIT include the expansion of regulatory T and B cells, as well as an increase in IgG4/IgE ratios. A major problem of AIT is the risk of anaphylaxis upon allergen extract administration due to the activation of basophils or mast cells. Current AIT optimization approaches include the evaluation of injection routes for allergen extracts and the modification of allergens in a way that reduces basophil/mast cell activation while maintaining allergen immunogenicity.

This Special Issue aims to improve our understanding of:

1. The mechanisms that drive and suppress allergic sensitization and inflammation;
2. The mechanisms by which allergic immune responses could be shifted towards tolerance by therapeutic vaccination and/or adjuvantation strategies;
3. How the ability of allergens/vaccines to trigger the degranulation of mast  cells and basophils could be reduced without losing their immunogenicity and their disease-modifying properties.

Dr. Paul Engeroff
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• allergy
• allergens
• type 2 immune responses
• immunotherapy
• vaccine
• mast cells
• basophils