[Allergen potential of drugs and ex vivo demonstration of an immune response].
Drugs are able to activate the immune system, which may generate hypersensitivity states in individuals. In a first part, this article deals with the critical processes that are involved in drug sensitizations: what are the specific features of drugs as immunogens; how drugs are recognized as non-self by immunocompetent cells; what is the spontaneous outcome of drug allergic states, does a genetic predisposition regulate the immune response. The second part is mostly devoted to the biological investigation of drug sensitizations: what are we looking for and why, are all the available methods equally suitable for routine diagnosis, what are the major methological problems that we have to face at and how to escape them.
Albengres
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Service Hospitalo-Universitaire de Pharmacologie de Paris XII et Centre Régional de Pharmacovigilance, Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal, Créteil-France. edith.albengres@wanadoo.fr
D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000276:immunology; D004342:Drug Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000276:immunology; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
D015847:Interleukin-4