Research Activities and Resources
Allergen and T-Cell Reagent Resources for the Study of Allergic Diseases. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) developed this new program in response to a 2005 NIAID-sponsored workshop on the future of immunotherapy. The subject matter experts who attended the workshop recognized a great need to identify and characterize allergen-specific T-cell epitopes for use in the development of novel immune-based therapeutics, including those that may induce immune tolerance against clinically important allergens. The goal of this program is to identify and characterize novel allergen-specific T-cell epitopes that activate both effector and regulatory T-cell subsets. We expect that this initiative will contribute significantly to our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie allergic disease and will lead to the development of new peptide-based immunotherapies. Epitopes identified by the investigators supported through this 2007 funding initiative will be deposited in the publicly accessible NIAID Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource. For more information, please contact Dr. Michael Minnicozzi.
Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers. NIAID established the first Asthma and Allergic Diseases Centers in 1971, and the program is now in its fourth decade of continuous funding. The Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers have been responsible for many important basic science discoveries and clinical advances in the fields of asthma and allergy and have trained many of today’s academic leaders in these fields. The program currently supports 15 Centers located throughout the United States. These Centers conduct basic and clinical research on the mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of asthma and allergic diseases. Several of the Centers are preparing to launch clinical studies, including the study of anti-IgE on airway responsiveness to allergen challenge, interaction of endotoxin- and allergen-induced inflammation on airway physiology, penicillin desensitization and its effects on mast cells, the interaction between allergen-induced chronic hyperplastic eosinophilic airway disease and asthma, the effect of nasal provocation with atmospheric particulate matter on allergic sensitization, and the use of oral immunotherapy to treat cow’s milk allergy. For more information, please contact Dr. Gang Dong.
Inner-City Asthma Consortium (ICAC). Since 1991, NIAID has funded research on asthma in inner-city areas with the goal of improving the treatment of children living in environments where the prevalence and severity of asthma is particularly high. The current program, recompeted in FY2002, consists of 10 academic clinical centers, an administrative center, and a statistical and data coordinating center. The goals of the ICAC are to evaluate the safety and efficacy of promising immune-based therapies to reduce the severity of asthma and prevent disease onset, to investigate the mechanisms of action of immune-based therapies developed to treat this disease, as well as to develop diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Recently completed and ongoing clinical studies include: 1) evaluation of the use of exhaled nitric oxide as a biomarker to supplement a guidelines-based approach to the management of children with asthma; 2) a clinical trial of the effectiveness of anti-IgE therapy in asthmatic children; 3) a Phase I study of sublingual cockroach immunotherapy; and 4) a birth cohort study of children at high risk of developing asthma with the goal of identifying immunologic characteristics that will predict the development and the severity of asthma at a later age. For more information, please contact Dr. Peter Gergen.
Immune Tolerance Network (ITN). First funded in 1999 and renewed in 2007, the ITN is an international consortium of investigators in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia dedicated to the development and evaluation of novel, tolerance-inducing therapies in immune-mediated disorders, including asthma and allergic disease. The ITN recently completed a proof-of-principle clinical trial using a recombinant ragweed allergen chemically conjugated to immunostimulatory DNA to treat allergic rhinitis (Creticos et al., 2006). Just six injections of this allergen-DNA conjugate, given to ragweed allergic patients prior to seasonal exposure to ragweed pollen, markedly reduced rhinitis symptoms during both that year’s and the following year’s ragweed season. An ongoing ITN clinical trial is testing whether regular consumption of a peanut snack by high-risk children enrolled between four and ten months of age will prevent the later development of peanut allergy. For more information, please contact Dr. Marshall Plaut.
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