Functional specific IgG4 and basophil activation during standardized house dust mite specific immunotherapy

Specific immunotherapy (SIT) refers to a treatment that controls allergic symptoms by improving the patient’s tolerance by administering gradually increasing doses of allergen extract. The mechanism of SIT is very complicated. Preliminary research showed that immunoglobulins are elevated in patients after SIT, and the increase in immunoglobulin sIgG4 is positively correlated with improvement of clinical symptoms. This project will investigate the mechanisms of specific immunotherapy in patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma. 40 patients with allergic rhinitis or asthma will be randomized into a SIT group (where house dust mite is used as the allergen for SIT) or a conventional treatment group (where patients are treated according to the rules of allergic rhinitis and asthma stated in established guidelines). TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Gail Gauvreau

Student:

Partner:

Guangzhou Medical University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Globalink Research Award