Chemical Modification of Birch Allergen Extract to Reduce Alxoid Allergenicity & Immunogenicity

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Chemical Modification of Birch Allergen Extract
to Reduce Alxoid Allergenicity Immunogenicity
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Various flowering trees, herbs, grasses, and
grains can cause pollen allergy, but some people
suffer from birch pollen. Pollens can cause a lot
of discomforts, such as sneezing, red eyes,
tiredness, and sniffling. Pollens from birch or
other trees from the families like Betulaceae and
Fagaceae are the leading tree pollen types found
in Central and Northern Europe and some areas of
North America. In a study, it has been found that
eight to sixteen percent of Europeans are
sensitized to birch pollen because birch trees
are mostly found n Europe and a single birch tree
can produce up to 100 million pollens. Birch
pollen is a substance that irritates a persons
immune system and thus develops a birch pollen
allergy. Some people have continual pollen
allergies that remain for the whole year, while
others only have them during some particular time
of the year.
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Symptoms of Birch Pollen Allergy
nasal congestion runny nose cough
decreased sense of smell and taste swollen,
bluish-colored skin beneath the eyes itchy,
watery eyes sinus pressure scratchy
throat
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How Is It
Treated?One of the best treatments to get rid of
birch pollen allergy is Immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy is specifically carried out with
vaccines that contain allergen extracts. The
clinical term for this is immunogenicity, which
is the ability to induce a humoral and/or
cell-mediated immune response via the usage of
tailored vaccines. Immunogenicity is the ability
of foreign particles, such as an antigen to
provoke an immune response in humans or any
animals body. Immunogenicity may be of two
kinds wanted or unwanted
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Wanted Immunogenicity is generally related to
vaccines, where the injection of an antigen
aggravates an immune response against the
pathogen, which helps protect the organism from
future exposure.In short, Immunogenicity is the
activation of this response in the body, which
modifies allergic disease and then produces the
desired immune response over time. Patients
experience this as reduced symptoms. Allergy
immunotherapy only works because of
immunogenicity and is the crux of all allergy
vaccines efficacy.
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Besides this, chemically modified allergen
extracts (allergoids) are used when there is some
specific type of Alxoid allergy, such as grass or
birch allergy. In addition to this, chemically
modified allergen extracts are used for
particular allergy treatments. Reduced
allergenicity and thus reduced risk of side
effects combined with the maintained ability to
activate T cells and provoke protective
allergen-specific antibody responses has been
claimed for allergoids. In a study, intact
allergen extracts and allergens are compared with
allergenicity and immunogenicity. The chemical
modifications lead to a clear reduction in T cell
activation in vitro and can induce murine
allergen-specific IgG antibody responses.
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Allergen-specific immunotherapy (IT) involves the
risk of side effects. Fifty-two patients with
birch and grass pollen allergies participated in
a three-year IT study. During the first year of
treatment, they received double-blinded IT with
either birch or grass pollen extracts adsorbed to
aluminum hydroxide. This treatment is not as
effective and can be costly.
ConclusionWhile some
allergoids were related to reduced allergenicity,
a clear drop in immunogenicity was observed for
all allergoid products compared with the intact
allergen vaccine, and the commercial allergoids
tested, therefore, dont fulfill the allergoid
concept.