SPIREs: a new horizon for allergic disease treatment?

Allergic diseases are common and specific immunotherapy provides a therapeutic approach. Specific immunotherapy has its limits, as whole allergen extracts are used. These may contain proteins that patients might not be sensitized to. A required long-term treatment (3-5 years) might activate a potential risk of IgE-mediated severe allergic reactions. A new promising therapeutic approach is to apply short synthetic T-cell peptides. Such synthetic peptides consist of immunoregulatory epitopes (SPIREs) that are 13-17 amino acids in length. Recent clinical data, derived from chamber studies, suggest a clinical efficacy with a good tolerability of SPIREs.