clair088

The rise in non-communicable, inflammatory diseases (NCD), and in particular allergic and atopic illnesses, has begun to redirect the efforts of the clinical research community toward early prevention in addition to supportive intervention.   This is in light of the significant burden on healthcare created by NCD as well as the realization of the limitations of pharmacotherapies to affect underlying causes.  This month’s review article by Pfefferle, Prescott and Kopp ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2013; 131(6): 1453-1463 )  assesses the practical application of findings that commensal gut microbes are critical partners in the evolution of environmental tolerance.   They focus on the accumulating evidence supporting a disrupted human microbiome that has led researchers to propose the use of pro- and pre-biotic therapies as means to prevent inflammatory immune processes that create chronic allergic and atopic diseases. Pfefferle et al. review briefly the current kn...

Results from an interesting epidemiological investigation based on data from eight birth cohorts collected under the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network [GA 2 LEN] research initiatives are presented this month in Rzehak et al ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2013; 131(6): 1528-1536 ).  Risk of “incident asthma,” defined as first reported physician diagnosis, for 3 age brackets up to 6 years old is analyzed. Using a novel growth curve analysis method to identify classes of BMI trajectories normalized according to WHO standards [BMI-SDS], the authors identify three classes, a normative class [Class 1], an early rapid growth only up to 2 years class [Class 2], and a persistent rapid growth to 6 years class [Class 3].  Survival analysis of the three BMI-SDS trajectories assessed the hazard ratio [HR] for incident asthma in each.  Rzehak et al. report that children in the Class 2 trajectory had a significant increased risk of incident asthma within their first 6 years.  Cl...