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Given an increasing awareness of gluten-related disorders, medical professionals are encountering patients diagnosed with celiac disease or thought to have food intolerance to gluten. Green et al provide a review of the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and management of celiac disease ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2015; 135(5):1099-1106 ). There are currently three major wheat-related food illnesses: celiac disease (CD), non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), and wheat allergy. CD is an autoimmune disorder involving both an innate and adaptive response in genetically predisposed individuals. Unlike food allergies, the pathogenesis of CD is not mediated by an immediate hypersensitivity reaction via an immunoglobulin (IgE) dependent mechanism. Instead, gluten protein is a pathogenic agent activated by the enzyme tissue transglutaminase (TTG) allowing its presentation to CD4+ T cells in the small intestine. NCGS is a term that refers to a spectrum of clinical phenotypes, witho...

Food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES) and food protein-induced proctocolitis are non-IgE-mediated gastrointestinal allergies. Our current understanding of the mechanisms of these allergies linking exposure to the typical symptoms of vomiting, hypotension, and diarrhea falls behind that of other food-induced allergic disorders. Accompanying a comprehensive review of clinical features by Nowak-Wegrzyn that also appears in this issue, Berin assesses the state of our knowledge of the immune mechanisms of FPIES ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2015; 135(5):1108-1113 ). FPIES is most commonly triggered by the protein component in cow’s milk, but a host of other foods can be triggers as well. Many of the foods that trigger FPIES reactions are also IgE-mediated food allergens, such as soy, fish, wheat, and egg, but many are not common in that regard. For example, rice is the third most common cause of FPIES in US cohorts, followed by oats. The fact that a range of common foods have the p...

Anaphylaxis is reported to occur with increasing frequency in infants. An illustrated Rostrum on the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term management of anaphylaxis in this age group has been published by Simons and Sampson ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2015;135: 1125-31 ). Foods such as milk, egg, and peanut are by far the most common triggers of anaphylaxis in infancy, although medications and other triggers can also be implicated. Infants with anaphylaxis typically present with sudden onset of skin signs such as generalized urticaria, respiratory symptoms such as cough, wheeze, stridor, and dyspnea, and/or gastrointestinal symptoms such as persistent vomiting. Clinical criteria for diagnosis of anaphylaxis are validated for use in children and adults, but have not yet been validated for use in infants. A high index of suspicion is required to diagnose anaphylaxis in babies, as they cannot describe symptoms such as itching, and signs of infant anaphylaxis such as flushing, dysphonia, incont...

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) are the mainstay of treatment of asthma. However, a considerable proportion of asthmatic patients do not respond to ICSs based on lung function, or other clinical outcomes, or both. Therefore, biomarkers relevant to the underlying pathophysiologic process, the response to treatment, or both would be useful in personalizing care of asthmatic patients. This need led Cowan et al to follow up from an original study of a 2 phase trial consisting of a steroid-naïve phase 1 and a 28-day trial of ICSs (phase 2) during which fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (F ENO ) values, eosinophil counts, and urinary bromotyrosine (BrTyr) levels were measured in asthmatic patients ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2015; 135(4): 877-883 ). Over the last decade, F ENO values and sputum eosinophil counts have been used as biomarkers of airway inflammation and predictors of steroid responsiveness. F ENO values are correlated with airway eosinophilia and associated with airway hyper-resp...

The relationship between overweight/obesity and asthma phenotype in children remains inadequately defined. Several large epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that obesity increases the risk of physician-diagnosed asthma and is associated with greater asthma-related health utilization and asthma that is more problematic and difficult to control. This discrepancy regarding the impact of obesity suggests that more in-depth and novel assessments of lean and obese asthmatic children may be required. Specifically, few studies have addressed how obese patients perceive and report asthma symptoms. This led Lang et al to determine the qualitative differences in symptoms between lean and overweight/obese children with early-onset, atopic asthma ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2015; 135(4): 886-893 ). The authors conducted a cross-sectional analytic study of lean and overweight/obese 10-17 year old children with persistent, early-onset asthma. Participants provided a complete history, qualitative an...

Severe asthma is characterized by difficulty to achieve disease control despite high-dose inhaled glucocorticoids plus long acting β 2 –agonists (LABAs) or oral corticosteroids (OCSs). In 2011, the Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) published an international consensus statement in which a more accurate definition of severe asthma was proposed. In this statement, a clear distinction was made between “difficult to control asthma” and “severe refractory asthma.” In patients with difficult to control asthma, the lack of asthma control is due to other factors than asthma itself, such as nonadherence to treatment or incorrect inhalation technique. On the other hand, in patients with severe refractory asthma, the disease remains uncontrolled despite addressing and removing all possible factors that might aggravate the underlying disease. Hekking et al sought to estimate the prevalence of severe refractory asthma as defined by the IMI consensus ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2015; 135(4): 896-902...

In addition to having a nonfunctional NADPH oxidase, activated phagocytes from patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) and gp91phox-/- mice (modeling X-linked CGD) lack oxidant production from mitochondria, as reported by authors Fernandez-Boyanapalli et al ( http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749%2814%2901576-0/abstract ) . Specifically, neutrophils and monocytes from blood, as well as recruited neutrophils and macrophages from inflamed tissues of CGD mice, failed to produce mitochondrial oxidants when activated. Deficient mitochondrial oxidant production was shown to contribute to impaired bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Burkholderia cepacia in vitro. Importantly, the researchers demonstrated that mitochondrial oxidant production was restored (see Figure) following short-term treatment of CGD mice with pioglitazone, a PPAR? agonist approved for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Pioglitazone is known to induce metabolic changes that mimic “starvatio...