follow up article

[Guest guest]

here's another article that was in the digest, basicly saying the same thing,

but seemed easier to read.

~heather

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/523561?src=mp

Omalizumab May Make Rush Immunotherapy Safer, More Effective

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By Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Feb 13 - In patients undergoing rush immunotherapy

for ragweed-induced seasonal allergic rhinitis, pretreatment with the anti-IgE

antibody omalizumab can provide substantial protection against acute allergic

reactions, including anaphylaxis, research suggests.

Administering omalizumab at the same time as allergen immunotherapy may

enhance both safety and efficacy of this therapy, the study team reports.

In the study, investigators randomized 159 adult ragweed allergic rhinitis

patients to either omalizumab or placebo for 9 weeks, followed by 1-day rush or

placebo immunotherapy, followed by 12 weeks of omalizumab or placebo

administered with immunotherapy. One hundred twenty-three subjects completed all

treatments.

Pretreatment with omalizumab reduced the rate of anaphylactic events during

rush immunotherapy by almost 80%, Dr. B. Casale from Creighton University

School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska and co-authors report in the January

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Overall rates of allergic reactions during rush immunotherapy were also

significantly lower with omalizumab than without.

Moreover, the addition of omalizumab pretreatment to immunotherapy led to

significant improvement in severity scores during the ragweed season, suggesting

a possible synergistic effect.

Ragweed-specific IgG levels increased more than 11-fold in immunotherapy

patients and free IgE levels declined more than 10-fold in omalizumab-treated

patients, indicating that omalizumab was exerting the intended biological

effect, the team notes.

" This study shows enhanced efficacy and safety of pre-treating seasonal

allergic rhinitics with the anti-IgE monoclonal antibody omalizumab prior to and

during rush and maintenance immunotherapy with ragweed extract, " Dr. Casale told

Reuters Health.

" These data suggest that omalizumab pretreatment appropriately dosed and timed

might lead to safer and more effective use of allergen-specific immunotherapy

for a variety of patients and disorders, " he added.

J Allergy Clin Immunology 2006;117:134-140.

" There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that

envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for

better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of

good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed

on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. "

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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[Guest guest]

, Pat et al.

My xolair nurse was interested in xolair and peanut

allergy. I seem to recall they halted phase III

studies since ppl were having anaphylaxis. Am I

dreaming that? Anyone have any links??

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