Supporting allergen-specific immunotherapy by inhibition of Janus kinases

Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is the only disease-modifying and curative treatment for allergic diseases. While in selected indications such as Hymenoptera venom allergy the curative success of AIT is impressingly high, in other disease manifestations it only reduces the symptoms to a certain extend in a fraction of patients. Key problems leading to a reduced efficacy of AIT seem to partly depend on local inflammatory processes that are not only causing side-effects, but additionally feed-back on the specific immune response. Thus, these inflammatory processes also influence the immunologic memory and impair the induction of immune tolerance (1). During the initial phase of AIT, a further increase of Th2 inflammation, including higher levels of allergen-specific IgE has been observed frequently and can be a reason for side-effects and even anaphylactic reactions during AIT. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.