Allergy News and Research

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The term allergy encompasses a wide range of conditions; it is not a disease in itself. In 1906 Clemens von Pirquet was the first to describe allergies as a changed or altered reaction of the immune system in response to exposure to foreign proteins. These days the term allergy – medically termed hypersensitivity, signifies an exaggerated reaction to foreign substances.

Adverse events from antibiotics cause 142,000 emergency department visits per year in U.S.

Adverse events from antibiotics cause an estimated 142,000 emergency department visits per year in the United States, according to a study published in the September 15, 2008 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

12 Aug 2008

NanoViricides reports HIVCide-I significantly superior to current anti-HIV three drug cocktail standard

NanoViricides, Inc. said that additional biological tests and data analysis have shown that animals treated with its lead anti-HIV drug candidate, HIVCide-I, demonstrated a substantially greater reduction in viral load -- number of infectious virus particles per milliliter of blood -- when compared to the animals given the anti-HIV "combo cocktail" in a preliminary animal study. An important objective of anti-HIV treatment is to minimize the viral load.

11 Aug 2008

Wheezing after early-life antibiotics: Blame the underlying chest infection more than the antibiotics

Children who are given antibiotics in their first three months often wheeze at 15 months of age. However, this wheezing is probably more due to the presence of chest infections than to the use of antibiotics.

6 Aug 2008

Students with food allergies often not prepared

College students with food allergies aren't avoiding the foods they know they shouldn't eat. Students of all ages are not treated with potentially life-saving epinephrine as often as they should be. And instructors, roommates and friends often are not aware of what to do if a food-allergic student has a reaction.

6 Aug 2008

USPTO issues patent for methodologies for abating a broad range of allergens, pathogens, viruses, bacteria

The United States Patent & Trademark Office issued a patent for an environmentally "Green" low cost process that eliminates the effects of a broad range of pollutants using oxidants.

5 Aug 2008

Adverse reactions to iodinated contrast media treated safely with commonly used medications

Patients who have had acute allergic-like reactions to nonionic iodinated contrast material rarely develop any serious long-term problems and can be treated safely with commonly used medications according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor.

4 Aug 2008

Genetic defect in skin cells leads to neurodermatitis, hay fever and asthma

New knowledge points to the fact that a genetically induced lack of filaggrin, a key protein of the skin barrier, plays a decisive role in the origin of allergies.

3 Aug 2008

Alcohol linked to increased risk of perennial allergic rhinitis

There is a link between alcohol consumption and increased risk of perennial allergic rhinitis, according to a recent Danish study of 5,870 young adult women.

29 Jul 2008

HIV vaccine research needs new ideas more funding

New researchers and innovative ideas are needed to further research on developing an HIV/AIDS vaccine, U.S. scientists wrote in Friday's edition of Science magazine, the AP/Google.com reports.

29 Jul 2008

Lung inflammation from influenza and other infections could be turned off following new discovery

A new discovery could lead to treatments which turn off the inflammation in the lungs caused by influenza and other infections, according to a study published in the journal Nature Immunology.

27 Jul 2008

Antimicrobial sutures reduce infections in brain shunt surgery

Children born with hydrocephalus, or "water on the brain" must have shunts implanted to drain the fluid away from the brain to reduce harmful pressure.

27 Jul 2008

Allergic rhinitis diagnosis and treatment: new guidelines for primary care professionals

Two complementary guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of allergic rhinitis are published in the August issue of the Allergy journal.

24 Jul 2008

Luna awarded NIH grant for fullerene-based nanomedicines as allergy treatments

Luna Innovations Incorporated has announced the award of a $1.6 million Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the use of fullerene-based nanomedicines as a pathway to treat allergies and other inflammatory diseases.

22 Jul 2008

Trial of new AIDS vaccine bites the dust

Plans to conduct a large-scale human trial of an experimental HIV/AIDS vaccine in the United States have bitten the dust.

21 Jul 2008

Early exposure to tobacco smoke causes asthma and allergy

Babies exposed to cigarette smoke before birth or during the first months afterwards run a greater risk of developing asthma and allergy. This according to a doctoral thesis from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet.

19 Jul 2008

NIAID will not conduct the PAVE 100 HIV vaccine study

After soliciting and considering broad input from the scientific and HIV advocacy communities, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has determined that it will not conduct the HIV vaccine study known as PAVE 100.

17 Jul 2008

Quick formula could forecast which cancers chemo could kill

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have coined a simple formula that predicts how well a certain chemotherapy will work for targeting brain and other nervous system cancers. The formula, which publishes mid-July in Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, is pegged to two important proteins that compose such hard-to-kill tumors - one of which, ironically, makes them so drug-resistant in the first place.

15 Jul 2008

Tired B cells hamper immune response to HIV

Recent studies have shown that HIV causes a vigorous and prolonged immune response that eventually leads to the exhaustion of key immune system cells--CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells--that target HIV.

14 Jul 2008

Allergy to road traffic

Allergic diseases appear more often in children who grow up near busy roads. This is the result of a study of several thousand children, now published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.