Development of IgE Autoantibodies in New-borns with Atopic dermatitis (DIANA) - Birth cohort study

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic relapsing skin disease with intensely itchy, inflamed lesions that
severely impairs patient’s quality of life and social functioning. AD affects about 20% of children and
persists into adulthood. It is associated with comorbid allergic diseases, such as food allergy, asthma
and hay fever. Allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies are key players in allergic
reactions and autoreactive IgE-antibodies against cutaneous self-proteins in AD patients have been
identified. I want to provide new insights in development and role of autoantibodies in the chronic
course or severity of AD and their potential as predicting or therapeutic factor in AD and other
allergic diseases. I will do so by means of 3 objectives: 1) To investigate the development of IgE
autoantibodies in 1000 infants and their parents in a birth cohort to explore the first stages of IgE
autoantibody development; 2) To study the pathophysiology of IgE autoantibodies on cellular level in
a prospective study using in vitro analyses; 3) To characterize IgE-producing B cells with single cell
transcriptomics and define binding affinity of IgE autoantibodies to self-proteins. I hypothesize that
early onset AD is the basis of IgE autoantibody development that can serve as a biomarker for
further development of allergy related co-morbidities, and that some of the self-proteins of IgE
autoantibodies are clinically relevant in an autoimmune or autoallergic disease endotype