Christian Doppler Laboratory for Immunomodulation, Department of Pathophysiology & Allergy Research, Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology & Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
Immunotherapy. 2011 Jul;3(7):881-93. doi: 10.2217/imt.11.69.
IgE-mediated allergic disorders affect up to 25% of the population in industrialized countries and result in a Th2-polarized immune response to innocuous environmental proteins, so-called allergens. Among a large number of proteins to which humans are exposed to, only a minute fraction are allergens. This observation suggests that allergens share special features of allergenicity (i.e., the capacity to induce the production of specific IgE antibodies in susceptible individuals). However, the question 'what makes a protein allergenic' still remains unanswered although some biochemical characteristics of allergens and their capacity to interact with the innate immune system could be associated with their allergenic potential. Allergen-specific immunotherapy aims at an alteration of the disease-eliciting immune response by repeated administration of allergens. Recently, approaches emerged to endow allergens with adjuvanticity, in particular aiming at an increase of their immunomodulatory capacity. This article summarizes factors of allergenicity and introduces recent concepts of adjuvanticity to improve allergen-specific immunotherapy.
IgE 介导的过敏疾病影响到工业化国家高达 25%的人口，并导致对无害环境蛋白（所谓的变应原）产生 Th2 极化免疫反应。在人类接触的大量蛋白质中，只有一小部分是变应原。这一观察结果表明，变应原具有特殊的变应原性（即诱导易感个体产生特异性 IgE 抗体的能力）。然而，尽管已经确定了一些变应原的生化特性及其与先天免疫系统相互作用的能力可能与其变应原潜力有关，但“是什么使蛋白质具有变应原性”的问题仍然没有答案。变应原特异性免疫疗法旨在通过反复给予变应原来改变引发疾病的免疫反应。最近，出现了一些方法来赋予变应原佐剂特性，特别是旨在提高其免疫调节能力。本文总结了变应原性的因素，并介绍了提高变应原特异性免疫疗法的佐剂性的最新概念。
