Important basic allergy-immunology topics.
Allergies are thought to arise out of a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors. These factors signal the immune system to produce the allergy antibody (IgE) upon exposure to a certain antigen (a pollen, food, animal dander, mold, etc), instead of classifying the antigen as harmless and ignoring it. The IgE [...]
"Antigen" is a term for a substance that is capable of inducing an antibody immune response via signaling. Antigens can be molecules on the surface of viruses, bacteria, molds, pollens, foods, tissue cells (from animals, human donors, or even ourselves), and more.
"Immunotherapy" is a process of prevention or treatment of a disease (such as an allergy, autoimmune disorder, or cancer) that involves signaling and modifying the immune system via mechanisms such as suppression, desensitization, stimulation, enhancement, down-regulation, and others. For allergen immunotherapy, desensitizing and/or true tolerance-building effects (these are different) can occur in [...]
Immunotherapy offers the closest thing we currently have to a cure for allergies, but it is important to realize that it is not an absolute cure. Currently, there is no complete cure for any type of allergy or any other disease or condition that has at least a partially genetic basis. Though this is [...]
