Immunotherapy with standard bacterial and bacterial ribosomal antigens in childhood bronchial asthma

In this study we compared the therapeutic effectiveness of a lyophilized bacterial vaccine (LBV) with that of a vaccine prepared from bacterial ribosomal antigens (ARB) in 150 children with bacterial bronchial asthma. The immunological response of the patients was assessed clinically at 6 months, 1 year and 3 years, by determining the intensity and frequency of the bronchospasm. The serum immunoglobulin levels, the only immunologic parametres studied, were determined at basal conditions and following immunotherapy.

after 360 days we detected a better clinical response in those patients who received the ribosomal vaccine (ARB), whereas after 3 years there was no difference in the clinical response between this group of patients and the group who received the bacterial vaccine (LBV). Immunological results: we were not able to show a statistically significant increase in immunoglobulin levels during the three years of immunotherapy with the two vaccines. However, those patients who possessed a deficit in IgG displayed a statistically significant increase in IgG levels after 360 days (t = 3.58, p less than 0.01), and an even greater increase after 1080 days (t = 7.86, p less than 0.001), of treatment with the standard bacterial vaccine. The ribosomal vaccine produced a significant increase in IgG levels (t = 9.59, p less than 0.001) after 1080 days also in patients with a deficit in IgG. In patients with a previous deficit in IgA we did not observe an increase in serum IgA levels during immunotherapy with the bacterial vaccine, but with the ribosomal vaccine these patients displayed significantly higher levels of IgA (t = 13.09, p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)