title: The consideration of immunotherapy in the treatment of allergic asthma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Immunotherapy (IT) has undergone rigorous trials to evaluate its therapeutic benefit in the treatment of allergic respiratory disease. The tools of molecular biology have provided a framework with which to begin to understand the mechanistic effects of IT on the underlying inflammatory component of allergic respiratory disease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The clinical relevance of these observations belies our understanding of allergic inflammation as the subsoil for the development of abnormal airway physiology, heightened bronchial reactivity, and the development of chronic asthmatic symptomatology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IT provides the potential to downregulate this inflammatory cascade, reduce IgE antibody production, and attenuate symptoms. Conceptually, early intervention of allergic disease holds the most promise as a therapeutic intervention capable of arresting the progression of the disease, altering the severity of the disease, and/or preventing the development of the respiratory disease process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. pcretic@jhmi.edu
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Creticos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D012130:Respiratory Hypersensitivity / Q000628:therapy*