Allergy prevention--an attainable objective?

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Allergy Research
• Preventive Medicine

Background:

• Significant increase in immunoglobulin E (IgE) mediated diseases globally.
• Genetic and environmental factors contribute to allergy development.
• Traditional allergy prevention is categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the timing of sensitization in allergic diseases.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of current allergy prevention strategies.
• To explore the concept of intrauterine programming in allergy.

Main Methods:

• Review of recent studies on infant immune responses.
• Analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cell proliferative responses in infants.
• Examination of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) levels in cord blood.

Main Results:

• Evidence suggests immune responses and sensitization can occur before birth (intrauterine programming).
• Infants from atopic families show altered immune responses at birth.
• Reduced IFN-γ in cord blood of infants from atopic families indicates early immune changes.

Conclusions:

• Current primary allergy prevention (preventing sensitization) may be too late.
• Intervention may need to occur during pregnancy or even pre-conception.
• Rethinking allergy prevention is crucial due to in utero immune development.