Allergy News

SAN DIEGO -- An oral immunotherapy regimen can help take the sting out of severe peanut allergies, reported investigators here.

Five of seven children with severe peanut allergy were able, after two years of immunotherapy, to tolerate a dose of 7.8 grams of peanut flour, equivalent to eating more than 13 peanuts, reported Scott David Nash, M.D., of Duke in Durham, N.C., and colleagues.

Yet while oral immunotherapy can desensitize patients to peanuts, children who undergo it may not be in the clear, cautioned the authors in a featured poster session at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology here.

Children who start drinking fresh milk from the farm early on are less likely to develop allergies when they are of school age, according to Swiss scientists.

But why more people are suffering allergies remains unclear, say researchers at Basel University, who have begun a study involving more than 14,000 children.

Cows' milk as food for infants has a bad reputation. From a nutritional perspective it does not fulfil the dietary requirements of babies, and children who are fed only cows' milk for too long often suffer an iron deficiency.

A fresh study by the Environmental Health section of the National Public Health Institute shows a strong link between asthma in children and dampness in the building structures of the home.

According to an article in the upcoming edition of the European Respiratory Journal, at least one in ten, and possibly as many as one in five cases of asthma among children are linked with water damage in the building.

The onset of asthma is the result of the cumulative effect of many factors. Nevertheless, in the 1990s there was a rapid increase in cases of asthma in Finland, as well as an increase in damage caused by dampness in buildings.

The Berkeley-based company said it will explore developing a different path for trials for the treatment, called Tolamba.

It announced Jan. 8 that trials for the drug were inconclusive, sending shares of the company's stock that day down 30 percent to just below $6.

"It's not the death knell for the allergy program," said Shari Annes, a Dynavax spokeswoman. "It was an inconclusive trial, not a failed drug."

The prescription antihistamine Astelin(R) (azelastine HCl) Nasal Spray(R) relieved the major symptoms of pollen allergy, including sneezing, runny nose and congestion, within 15 minutes of application compared to placebo and maintained efficacy at all time points for 8 hours in a randomized, single dose, double-blind, placebo- controlled study, MedPointe Pharmaceuticals announced today.

In addition, a group of patients treated with intranasal Nasonex(R) (mometasone furoate monohydrate) did not show symptom improvement compared to placebo during the eight hour study period. Data from the 450-patient study, conducted in a controlled environmental exposure unit (EEU), were presented at the 2007 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

The agency said it's asked the company to put a black-box warning label on the drug, which is sold under the brand name Xolair. A black box warning is the FDA's strongest warning.

Xolair was approved in 2003 to treat adults and adolescents with moderate to severe persistent asthma related to allergies whose symptoms are inadequately controlled with inhaled steroids.

A company spokesman couldn't immediately be reached.

Genentech shares recently rose 8 cents to $87.02.

Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Newswise — Children in this country suffer from asthma more than any other chronic illness, and new research finds African-American children with the condition have a greater risk than others of experiencing severe symptoms that escalate into an emergency.

Previous research has shown that in comparison with white and Hispanic children, African-Americans have a higher rate of asthma, are hospitalized more and face more disability due to the condition. Because of this, “we suspected they might also exhibit relatively more severe asthma symptoms at the time of hospitalization,” said Yu Bai, a doctoral candidate at Pennsylvania State University.

Bai and his colleagues analyzed the records of 7,726 white, African-American and Hispanic children up to age 19 who were admitted to Pennsylvania hospitals in 2001 for asthma symptoms. The researchers then examined how the physician reported the severity of the children’s condition and ranked them either as “emergency” or “non-emergency” admissions.

British scientists reported last spring in the journal Nature Genetics that people who suffer from both eczema and asthma carry the same gene mutation and concluded that in some cases eczema may actually lead to asthma.

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of Asthma – Evaluation and Management 2007 Update to their offering.

Patients with asthma require a continuum of preventive, acute, psychological, rehabilitative, education, and self-management interventions to meet their complex health and psychosocial needs. Deaths usually occur in asthma as a result of the lack of appreciation for the severity of an exacerbation, and inadequate prompt home emergency treatment.

Care by a pulmonary or allergy specialist for patients with mild to moderate as well as severe asthma has demonstrated improved outcomes. Improved outcomes related to specialist management (as measured by reduced hospitalizations and ER visits) appear due to the greater use of prophylactic medication and other strategies such as case management.

February 16, 2007 — In children with intermittent asthma, a short course of montelukast resulted in reduction in acute healthcare resources, asthma symptoms, and days lost from school and from work for parents, according to the results of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial reported in the February 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine.

"In children, intermittent asthma is the most common pattern and is responsible for the majority of exacerbations," write Colin F. Robertson, MD, of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues. "Montelukast has a rapid onset of action and may be effective if used intermittently."

Spanish researchers found using ozone to keep grapes fresh for wine was 90% as effective as sulphur dioxide, which is currently used by producers.

Sulphur dioxide is often linked to allergies such as asthma and migraines, the journal Chemical and Industry said.

But experts said there were other properties in wine that could trigger allergic reactions.

Asthmatics are more likely than other Australians to be obese and suffer other long-term health conditions, a new study says.

Australian researchers have found more than one in five asthma patients are obese, and fewer than half had a normal body mass index.

Only about 38 per cent of middle aged asthmatics had a normal body mass index.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report concluded people with asthma aged 18 to 64 were more likely to be obese than those who had never had asthma, but could not identify the reason.

Researchers have long noted that many asthma sufferers also have atopic dermatitis — often called eczema — a chronic disease of the skin that can leave it red, raw, scaly, tender, oozy and excruciatingly itchy. But scientists are looking at whether such ravaging of the skin creates the conditions that can trigger asthma.

Last spring in the journal Nature Genetics, British scientists reported that people who suffer from both eczema and asthma carry the same gene mutation and concluded that eczema may actually lead to asthma in some cases.

Until now, it had largely been assumed that dander, dust mites, pollen and other allergens that can cause asthma enter the body through the respiratory system. But the researchers said they now believe that they can also enter the body through tiny breaks in the skin’s surface — something that occurs in patients with eczema.

Background:

Objective: We analyzed the association between maternal diet during the last 4 wk of pregnancy and allergic sensitization and eczema in the offspring at 2 y of age.

Purpose of review: There is evidence for an association between asthma and air pollutants, including ozone, NO₂ and particulate matter. Since these pollutants are ubiquitous in the urban atmosphere and typically correlated with each other it has been difficult to ascertain the specific sources of air pollution responsible for the observed effects.

Similarly, uncertainty in determining a causal agent, or multiple agents, has complicated efforts to identify the mechanisms involved in pollution-mediated asthma events and whether air pollution may cause asthma as well as exacerbate preexisting cases.

It has long been questioned whether the benefits of PPD outweigh the drawbacks, with the agent already banned in Germany, France and Sweden due to the problems it was causing.