Oral immunotherapy

High-risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) is now recognised as the principal cause of the increasing incidence rates of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) in some parts of the world.The primary risk factor for developing HPV-related OPSCC is oral HPV-infection and the majority of oral HPV-infections are acquired by oral sex. Progression into a OPSCC includes persistent infection with evasion of immune response in the microenvironment, the activation of viral early genes (E6, E7) in basal epithelial cells, the deregulation of cell cycle and the accumulation of chromosomal instability...

BACKGROUND: Conventional data analysis of flow cytometry-based basophil activation testing requires repetitive, labor-intensive analysis that hampers efforts to standardize testing for clinical applications. Using an open-source platform, we developed and implemented a programmatic approach to the analysis of the basophil activation test (BAT) by flow cytometry. METHODS: Using the BÜHLMANN FlowCAST® assay, peripheral blood from peanut allergic patients undergoing oral immunotherapy was incubated with peanut allergens (Arah1, Arah2, Arah6, whole peanut extract) and stained with fluorescent antibodies to CCR3 and CD63 for the development of a data-driven programmatic analysis using Bioconductor and R...

Checkpoint blockade has revolutionized the treatment of melanoma; however, it benefits only the minority of patients. Several agents have been combined with immunotherapy to improve T-cell activation and persistence including growth factor, chemotherapy, and radiation. Preclinical data suggest that temozolomide, which metabolizes to the same active compound as dacarbazine, selectively depletes regulatory T cells. This potential immunomodulatory effect of temozolomide provides rationale for combination with ipilimumab...

PURPOSE: To report the clinical outcomes of adalimumab therapy in cases of birdshot chorioretinitis (BCR) with cystoid macular edema (CME) refractory to conventional immunotherapy. METHODS: This is a retrospective case series of three BCR patients treated with adalimumab for refractory CME. The main outcome measure was central subfield thickness (CST) on optical coherence tomography. Any patients treated with local steroids and/or receiving systemic steroids higher than 40 mg prednisolone daily during adalimumab therapy were excluded...

BACKGROUND: Peanut oral immunotherapy (POIT) decreases the probability of accidental recurrent systemic reactions but reactions from the therapy itself are frequent. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this economic analysis was to characterize the potential cost-effectiveness of POIT. METHODS: Cohort simulations were used to evaluate the effect of POIT for children with peanut allergy. A POIT with probiotic was used in the base-case simulation and long-term survival was modeled using age-adjusted mortality together with the risk of food allergy-associated mortality...

The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Head and Neck Cancers provide treatment recommendations for cancers of the lip, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, ethmoid and maxillary sinuses, and salivary glands. Recommendations are also provided for occult primary of the head and neck (H&N), and separate algorithms have been developed by the panel for very advanced H&N cancers. These NCCN Guidelines Insights summarize the panel's discussion and most recent recommendations regarding the increase in human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal cancer and the availability of immunotherapy agents for treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic H&N cancer...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Cow´s milk and egg are the most frequent causes of food allergy in the first years of life. Treatments such as oral immunotherapy (OIT) have been investigated as an alternative to avoidance diets. No clinical practice guides on the management of OIT with milk and egg are currently available. Objectives: To develop a clinical guide on OIT based on the available scientific evidence and the opinions of experts. METHODS: A review was made of studies published in the period between 1984 and June 2016, Doctoral Theses published in Spain, and summaries of communications at congresses (SEAIC, SEICAP, EAACI, AAAAI), with evaluation of the opinion consensus established by a group of experts pertaining to the scientific societies SEICAP and SEAIC...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Cow´s milk and egg are the most frequent causes of food allergy in the first years of life. Treatments such as oral immunotherapy (OIT) have been investigated as an alternative to avoidance diets. No clinical practice guides on the management of OIT with milk and egg are currently available. Objectives: To develop a clinical guide on OIT based on the available scientific evidence and the opinions of experts. METHODS: A review was made of studies published in the period between 1984 and June 2016, Doctoral Theses published in Spain, and summaries of communications at congresses (SEAIC, SEICAP, EAACI, AAAAI), with evaluation of the opinion consensus established by a group of experts pertaining to the scientific societies SEICAP and SEAIC...

The only causal treatment for the allergic diseases is the allergen immunotherapy. Besides oral and injection forms, an epicutaneous form is known as well. During the immunization process the use of an adjuvant material is advisable besides the allergen. That adjuvant material can be (besides of the aluminium hydroxid and tyrosine) a bacterial toxin, too. In idealistic circumstances we can substitute the native allergen with its recombinant variant, which could keep its immunogenicity but had lost the allergenicity...

Tumor angiogenesis is a frequent event in the development and progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and has been identified as a promising therapeutic target. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family and other angiogenic factors, including fibroblast growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor, promote the growth of newly formed vessels from preexisting vessels and change the tumor microenvironment. To date, two antiangiogenic monoclonal antibodies, bevacizumab and ramucirumab, which target VEGF-A and its receptor VEGF receptor-2, respectively, have been approved for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC when added to first-line standard chemotherapy...

OBJECTIVE: To validate predictive models for neural antibody positivity and immunotherapy response in epilepsy. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of epilepsy cases at Mayo Clinic (Rochester-MN; Scottsdale-AZ, and Jacksonville-FL) in whom autoimmune encephalopathy/epilepsy/dementia autoantibody testing profiles were requested (06/30/2014-06/30/2016). An Antibody Prevalence in Epilepsy (APE) score, based on clinical characteristics, was assigned to each patient...

We propose a new oral immunotherapy (OIT) method that includes a small amount of a food allergen in the diet. However, it is not clear whether this method will induce oral desensitization and immune tolerance. Therefore, we investigated the therapeutic effectiveness using a 1% food allergen diet in an allergic mouse model. C3H/HeJ mice were sensitized to ovomucoid (OM) in alum four times at 12-d intervals. Sensitized mice were divided into two groups: the OIT group (19% casein diet with 1% OM) and the non-treated group (20% casein diet without OM)...

BACKGROUNDDespite its high prevalence, relatively little is known about the characteristics of patients with multiple tree-nuts allergies.METHODSPatients (n=60, aged 4-15 years), recruited for a multiple food (tree-nuts, peanut, milk, egg, soy, sesame and wheat) oral immunotherapy (OIT) study, filled a questionnaire on their initial allergy evaluation. Medical records were reviewed. At OIT enrollment (median interval, 7.5 years), patients underwent oral food challenges (OFC) to foods still eliminated.RESULTSThere was significantly less evidence for eliminating tree-nuts compared to other foods, as reflected by lower rate of acute reaction to the offending food, either as the trigger for initial allergy evaluation (5...

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QOL) is impaired in patients with food allergy and improves following oral immunotherapy (OIT). However, the treatment itself is prolonged and demanding. We examined changes in patient QOL during OIT for food allergy. METHODS: The FAQLQ-PF was administered to children aged 4-12 years undergoing OIT for milk, peanut, or egg allergy, at the beginning and after 4 months of treatment. Patients were categorized as improved, unchanged, or diminished FAQLQ-PF (>0...

Type-1 allergies are among the most chronic common diseases of humans. Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) is the only causative and disease-modifying treatment option besides allergen avoidance. Severe systemic adverse allergic reactions may be induced by every AIT treatment. Different approaches have been used to provide safer AIT preparations to lower or even totally overcome this risk. Areas covered: A structured literature recherche in Medline and Pubmed under inclusion of national and international guidelines and Cochrane meta-analyses has been performed aiming at reviewing clinical use of such approaches in AIT...

Although Japanese traditional herbal medicine (Kampo) has been widely applied to the treatment of various diseases, including cancer, their mechanisms of action have not yet been elucidated in detail, particularly regarding their role in tumor immunology. The present study investigated the antitumor effects of the Japanese Kampo medicine, ninjin'yoeito (NYT; Ren-Shen-Yang-Rong-Tang in Chinese), which was orally administered with or without an irradiated tumor cell vaccine to a subcutaneous CT26 colon carcinoma tumor model...

A 45-year-old woman presented with multiple, slightly painful, reddish, nodular facial lesions that had developed at the site of Mycobacterium w vaccine injections given for her facial warts 4 weeks prior. She had not received a sensitization dose of Mycobacterium w vaccine, and all of the inflamed lesions were injected at the same time. On examination, approximately 20 erythematous, succulent nodules of variable size were noted over the cheeks and forehead (Figure 1). Some of these lesions had purulent discharge due to secondary infection...

Current treatment with oral nucleos(t)ides entecavir or tenofovir provide sustained suppression of HBV replication and clinical benefit in most chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected persons. However, HBV rebound generally occurs upon drug discontinuation due to persistence of genomic HBV reservoirs as episomic cccDNA and chromosomic integrated HBV-DNA. There is renewed enthusiasm on HBV drug discovery following recent successes with antivirals for hepatitis C and immunotherapies for some cancers. Areas covered: New drugs that target distinct steps of the HBV life cycle are been developed, including inhibitors of viral entry, new polymerase inhibitors, capsid and assembly inhibitors, virus release blockers, and disruptors of cccDNA formation and transcription...

Food allergy results from failure in oral tolerance that usually occurs in infancy or early childhood. Exposure to peanut and hen's egg via the inflamed and disrupted epithelial barrier in children with severe atopic dermatitis is a risk factor for the development of allergy to these foods and supports the hypothesis that epicutaneous exposure in the absence of oral feeding is an important pathway of allergic IgE sensitization in infants. In recent years, the collective evidence has pointed toward the protective effect of an early feeding with peanut and egg in children with eczema, taking advantage of the pathways underlying oral tolerance to counteract epicutaneous exposure...

BACKGROUND: The estimated incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis in India are 2.1 and 2.6 million cases respectively. Immunotherapy may shorten tuberculosis treatments and improve the immunity of individuals as well. Hence we study the efficacy of levamisole (LVM) (immunomodulator) as an adjuvant to chemotherapy of pulmonary tuberculosis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted for 21 months in newly diagnosed sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients...