Immunotherapy against environmental fungi causing respiratory allergy

Abstract

Allergic respiratory diseases (ARDs) have been one of the major global health problems of the 21st century with an increasing prevalence. A significant proportion of aerobiological particles in the environment is constituted by fungal structures, including those from Alternaria, Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Aspergillus species which are regarded as the four most common fungal genera associated with allergic fungal airway diseases (AFADs). Allergen specific immunotherapy (AIT) has capacity to promote protection as well as long-term tolerance to the allergen, however there have not been adequate number of studies evaluating the efficacy of against AFADs, up till today. Our review would like to draw more attention to the field by summarizing the current literature regarding the clinical use of the immunotherapy, with special focus on Alternaria, and Cladosporium AITs. The area is considered to be vital to public health due to the potential increase in global AFAD cases because of ongoing air pollution and climate impacts. The review also aims to sum up immunological findings associated with mould-AIT which would help further studies to be performed in order to develop an objective method to identify non-responders early in the course of therapy.