Allergen immunotherapy for allergic asthma: The future seems bright

Abstract

Allergen specific immunotherapy (AIT) is the only causal therapeutic option for allergic airway diseases including asthma and allergic rhinitis. AIT has been shown to restore the allergen immune tolerance, can modify both the early and late-onset allergen-specific airway hyperreactivity, helps to achieve disease control/remission and prevents new sensitisations. Recent real life data on long-term effectiveness of house dust mite (HDM) AIT in a large group of patients with HDM-driven asthma further underscored its unique therapeutic potential as well as confirmed previous data with pollen AIT. More widespread use of this causal treatment in select patient populations should further move this promising therapeutic field. In this mini-review, we discuss updates on new insights based on real world patient data.

Keywords: Allergen immunotherapy; Asthma; Clinical effectiveness; Disease modification; Disease remission; Mechanisms; Prevention.