The Future of Allergen-Specific Immunotherapy

Abstract

Allergen-specific immunotherapy (SIT) is the only known causal treatment of allergic diseases. The safety and efficacy of SIT have been demonstrated in humans in many clinical trials, which showed the essential role of SIT in preventing new allergies and asthma. However, SIT is not effective in all allergic individuals and is not equally effective in the treatment of various hypersensitivities to different allergens. For this reason, there is a strong need for research in the field of new SIT modalities to increase its effectiveness and safety. They include recombinant allergens or hypoallergenic variants that show the ability to activate T lymphocytes but decrease IgE binding, diminishing the anaphylaxis risk of the treatment. Growing evidence on different T cell subset functions provides new concepts on the safer and more effective vaccination strategies.