Allergologia et immunopathologia
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Allergol Immunopathol (Madr) · Sep 2020
ReviewBCG as a game-changer to prevent the infection and severity of COVID-19 pandemic?
The impact of COVID-19 is changing with country wise and depend on universal immunization policies. COVID-19 badly affects countries that did not have universal immunization policies or having them only for the selective population of countries (highly prominent population) like Italy, USA, UK, Netherland, etc. Universal immunization of BCG can provide great protection against the COVID-19 infection because the BCG vaccine gives broad protection against respiratory infections. ⋯ BCG vaccine provides protection for 50-60 years of immunization, so the elderly population needs to be revaccinated with BCG. Several countries started clinical trials of the BCG vaccine for health care workers and elderly people. BCG can be uses as a prophylactic treatment until the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Allergol Immunopathol (Madr) · May 2019
ReviewWhat do we know about cancer immunotherapy? Long-term survival and immune-related adverse events.
Immunotherapy delivered a new therapeutic option to the oncologist: Ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4), Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab (anti-PD1), and Atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1) increase overall survival and show a better safety profile compared to chemotherapy in patients with metastatic melanoma, lung, renal cancer among others. But all that glitters is not gold and there is an increasing number of reports of adverse effects while using immune-checkpoint inhibitors. ⋯ IRAEs, ranging from mild to potentially life-threatening events, can involve many systems, and their management is radically different from that of cytotoxic drugs: immunosuppressive treatments, such as corticoids, infliximab or mycophenolate mofetil, usually result in complete reversibility, but failing to do so can lead to severe toxicity or even death. Patient selection is an indirect way to reduce adverse events minimizing the number of subjects exposed to this drugs: unfortunately PDL-1, the actual predictive biomarker, would not allow clinicians select or exclude patients for treatment with checkpoint inhibitors.
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Allergol Immunopathol (Madr) · May 2019
ReviewImpulse oscillometry in the assessment of children's lung function.
To review available evidence in the literature on impulse oscillometry in the assessment of lung function in children with respiratory diseases, especially asthma. ⋯ The IOS is a useful tool for the measurement of the lung function of children. It is an easy test, although its interpretation is not straightforward.
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Severe asthma is defined as asthma which requires treatment with high dose inhaled corticosteroids and with a second controller drug to prevent it from becoming uncontrolled or which remains uncontrolled despite this therapy. Patients with uncontrolled severe asthma require additional treatment options as add-on therapy, including biologics. ⋯ Patients with Th2-high phenotype may also benefit from therapy with anti-IL-4/anti-IL-13 monoclonal antibodies (dupilumab). The main limitations of asthma treatment with biologic agents are the crossover and overlap of the different pathways in the pathogenesis of asthma which may cause lack of complete success of these therapies, in addition of high costs, which make pharmacoeconomic studies necessary to identify the ideal target patient population to receive these biologic drugs.
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Allergol Immunopathol (Madr) · Dec 2017
ReviewTablet-based sublingual immunotherapy for respiratory allergy.
Allergic respiratory disease represents a significant and expanding health problem worldwide. The gold standard of therapeutic intervention is still grucocorticosteroids, although they are not effective in all patients and may cause side effects. ⋯ In this review, new developments in the field of tablet-based SLIT for respiratory allergy are summarized, with special emphasis on HDM-induced allergic rhinitis and asthma. SLIT tablets are the best-documented immunotherapy products on the market and represent a more patient-friendly concept because they can be self-administrated at home.