Promising Use of the New Biologics in the Management of Drug-Induced Hypersensitivity Reactions: Preliminary Approaches

Abstract

Biologics are an innovative class of drugs that can selectively influence immunological responses at a cellular level. Although their use is usually restricted to some specific diseases, such as autoimmune pathologies and tumors, their "off-label" administration has increased widely in the last years. Drug treatment may induce hypersensitivity reactions which currently lack any gold standard therapy but maybe a future field of application for biologics. Agents like anti-IgE (Omalizumab) and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α inhibitors might be used in immediate-type and cell-mediated hypersensitivity caused by medications, respectively, and the first trials in that direction are being reported in the literature. In fact, the refined immunological mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of drug hypersensitivity might respond successfully to this new class of drugs.

Keywords: Biologicals; drug hypersensitivity; drug-induced cutaneous adverse reactions; etanercept; infliximab; mepolizumab anaphylaxis; omalizumab.