Allergy Diagnosis and Immunotherapy: A Molecular Approach

Allergic diseases have become a global health concern. The development of better diagnosis and treatment strategies is essential for their preventionand control. Current diagnostic methods are skin tests and allergen specific IgE measurements using crude extracts. These strategies do not identify causative allergen and have drawbacks of nonstandardization and cross-reactivity. Molecular allergy diagnosis using purified recombinant allergens and microarray technology overcomes these limitations and improves the efficacy of diagnostic tests. These improvements will lead to development of safer and effective vaccines for allergen specific immunotherapy. Besides, the use of recombinant hypoallergens, hybrid allergens, and antigenic peptides for allergen immunotherapy has added a new dimension to treatment of allergic diseases. Novel approaches like use of immunostimulatory DNA sequences and new vaccine delivery systems have shown promising results. This will help in alleviating the suffering of millions of patients suffering from allergic diseases.