swarna (Mariana Party Freak): The word allergy derives from the Greek words allos meaning "other" and ergon meaning "work". Type I hypersensitivity is characterized by excessive activation of mast cells and basophils by immunoglobulin E resulting in a systemic inflammatory response that can result in symptoms as benign as a runny nose, to life-threatening anaphylactic shock and death. *
09-06-11 - 04:56:06

swarna (Mariana Party Freak): Allergy is a very common disorder and more than 50 million Americans suffer from allergic diseases. Allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic disease in the United States, costing the health care system $18 billion annually. *
09-06-11 - 04:56:33

swarna (Mariana Party Freak): Hyposensitization is a form of immunotherapy where the patient is gradually vaccinated against progressively larger doses of the allergen in question. This can either reduce the severity 0r eliminate hypersensitivity altogether. It relies on the progressive skewing of IgG ("the blocking antibody") production, *
09-06-11 - 04:57:05

swarna (Mariana Party Freak): as opposed to the excessive IgE production seen in hypersensitivity type I cases. Delivery can occur via allergy injection, 0r sublingual immunotherapy, allergy drops taken under the tongue. Though not commonly offered in the U.S., sublingual immunotherapy is gaining attention internationally. *
09-06-11 - 04:58:51

swarna (Mariana Party Freak): A second form of immunotherapy involves the intravenous injection of monoclonal anti-IgE antibodies. These bind to free and B-cell IgE signalling such sources for destruction. They do not bind to IgE already bound to the Fc receptor on basophils and mast cells as this would stimulate the allergic inflammatory response. The first agent in this class is omalizumab. *
09-06-11 - 05:00:02