Cell-Based Therapy in Allergy

Abstract

IgE-mediated allergy is an immunological disorder occurring in response to otherwise harmless environmental antigens (i.e., allergens). Development of effective therapeutic or preventive approaches inducing robust tolerance toward allergens remains an unmet goal. Several experimental tolerance approaches have been described. The therapeutic use of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and the establishment of molecular chimerism are two cell-based strategies that are of particular interest. Treg therapy is close to clinical application, but its efficacy remains to be fully defined. Recent proof-of-concept studies demonstrated that transplantation of syngeneic hematopoietic stem cells modified in vitro to express a major allergen leads to molecular chimerism and robust allergen-specific tolerance. Here we review cell-based tolerance strategies in allergy, discussing their potentials and limitations.

Homogeneous Expansion of Human T-Regulatory Cells Via Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor 2

“…T- regulatory cells (T regs ) are a small subset of T-lymphocytes with diverse clinical applications in transplantation, allergy, infectious diseases, GVHD, autoimmunity, cancer, among others12345678910. One fundamental problem stymieing their clinical development is their relative paucity: naturally occurring T regs constitute only 1–5% of total CD4+ T cells in blood, and remain largely dormant until activated.…”

Allergen‐specific immunotherapy: from therapeutic vaccines to prophylactic approaches

“…Allergen-expressing stem cells [122][123][124] Engineered T regulatory cells [126] Engineered Th1 cells [128] E. Passive immunization…”

“…Review: Allergen-specific immunotherapy induce tolerance as has been shown in experimental animal models [122][123][124]. Third, viral-like particleor experimental cell-based forms of prophylaxis may be considered [125][126][127][128].…”

Molecular chimerism in IgE-mediated allergy

“…Thus, in contrast to models of molecular chimerism described above, in this study microchimeric levels were sufficient to used (Gattringer et al, submitted data) suggesting that allergens of several categories are potential candidates for molecular chimerism. 13 One of the technical limitations in these studies is the transduction efficiency which varies with each ex vivo treatment after retroviral integration. Low transduction efficiency leads to low levels of chimerism after bone marrow transplantation (BMT).…”