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Is Clinical Tolerance Possible after Allergen Immunotherapy?

  • Immunotherapy and Immunomodulators (B Vickery, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

There is a growing evidence that allergen immunotherapy (AIT) can provide significant and long-lasting clinical benefit for a number of allergic individuals. However, it is less clear if AIT results in clinical tolerance, which is characterized by a persistent state of clinical non-reactivity to allergens after therapy is finished. Addressing this knowledge gap is particularly relevant for patients undergoing AIT for food allergies, as anything less than complete tolerance could have potentially devastating consequences. An increasing number of studies, in particular those involving oral immunotherapy, are attempting to assess tolerance induction following AIT. Clinical tolerance does appear to be achievable in a subset of patients undergoing AIT, but whether this is equivalent to the type of tolerance observed in nonallergic individuals remains unknown. Developing established criteria for assessing tolerance induction, as well as the use of consistent terminology when describing clinical tolerance, will be important for determining the disease-modifying potential of AIT.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Arlene Mendoza-Moran for proof reading and grammatical review.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of Interest

A. Wesley Burks reports personal fees from ExploraMed Development, LLC, Food Allergy Initiative, Food Allergy Research & Education, GLG Research, Merck, Mylan Speciality, Novartis Pharma AG, Nutricia North America, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Unilever, ActoGeniX, SRA International, Genentech, Sanofi US Services;non-financial support from Mastcell Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; personal fees and grants from Hycor Biomedical and Allergen Research Corporation. Timothy P. Moran declares no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, The University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 104 Mason Farm Road Campus, Box 7310, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7310, USA

    Timothy P. Moran

  2. Department of Pediatrics, The University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 260 MacNider Building Campus, Box 7220, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7220, USA

    A. Wesley Burks

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  1. Timothy P. Moran
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Correspondence to A. Wesley Burks.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Immunotherapy and Immunomodulators

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Moran, T.P., Burks, A.W. Is Clinical Tolerance Possible after Allergen Immunotherapy?. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 15, 23 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-015-0523-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-015-0523-3

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