title: SPIREs: a new horizon for allergic disease treatment?
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Allergy Center Charité, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Margitta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Worm
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003888:Desensitization, Immunologic / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000276:immunology; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011173:Portraits as Topic; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D007073:Immunoglobulin E
keywords: IgG4; allergy; mechanism; specific immunotherapy; synthetic peptides