Understanding allergic asthma from allergen inhalation tests.

Abstract

The allergen challenge has evolved, in less than 150 years, from a crude tool used to document the etiology of allergen-induced disease to a well-controlled tool used today to investigate the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of asthma. Highlights of the authors' involvement with the allergen challenge include confirmation of the immunoglobulin E-dependence of the late asthmatic response, importance of (nonallergic) airway hyper-responsiveness as a determinant of the airway response to allergen, identification of allergen-induced increase in airway hyper-responsiveness, documentation of beta(2)-agonist-induced increase in airway response to allergen (including eosinophilic inflammation), advances in understanding the pathophysiology and kinetics of allergen-induced airway responses, and development of a multicentre clinical trial group devoted to using the allergen challenge for investigating promising new therapeutic strategies for asthma.

• Authors: Donald W Cockcroft, Fredrick E Hargreave, Paul M O'Byrne, Louis-Philippe Boulet
• Journal: Canadian respiratory journal (Can Respir J) Vol. 14 Issue 7 Pg. 414-8 (Oct 2007) ISSN: 1198-2241 [Print] Egypt
• PMID: 17948142 (Publication Type: Historical Article, Journal Article, Review)

Chemical References

• Allergens
• Immunoglobulin E

Topics

• Allergens (adverse effects, immunology)
• Asthma (history, immunology)
• Bronchial Provocation Tests (history, methods)
• Canada
• History, 19th Century
• History, 20th Century
• History, 21st Century
• Humans
• Hypersensitivity (immunology, physiopathology)
• Immunoglobulin E (immunology)