What is it about?
In this paper we describe the DesensIT project which was planned and carried out in order to collect and evaluate data related to allergen specific sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT). During this project we have collected heterogeneous clinical, psychological, genomic, immunologic and environmental data for more than 3 years and from more than 400 participants, developed data collection systems and established a biobank which can be used for further measurements and evaluations.
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Why is it important?
Problems and unmet needs in allergen specific sublingual immunotherapy • Lack of objective diagnostic/predictive biomarkers for SLIT • Lack of reliable endpoint biomarkers • The dropout rate is high • Knowledge about the mechanism of allergen-specific immunotherapy is insufficient • Continuous contact between patients and physicians should be achieved • The public awareness of allergen-specific immunotherap is insufficient Aim of the DesensIT project • The main aim of the DesensIT project was to collect and evaluate data in SLIT to allergic rhinoconjunctivitis to address the above mentioned problems and to develop multivariate, system-based predictive models for multiple treatment responses with focus on personalized medicine, particularly on the use of genetic, immunologic and self-reported patient data. Work packages in the DesensIT project • To target the above mentioned aims, thirteen work packages were planned which involved selection of the patients, application of ragweed specific sublingual immunotherapy, collection of biological samples, clinical, environmental and laboratory data including results of genetic and immunologic measurements, development of different IT tools like electronic SLIT-diary, web-based interface for data collection for physicians, statistical analysis, development of decision support systems for personalized SLIT, project management, dissemination, training and ethical issues.
Perspectives
Allergen-specific immunotherapy soon can become a forerunner of future medicine/medical approaches in many respects, such as real-life monitoring of efficiency and side-effects and using personalized drugs and treatments. The DesensIT project demonstrated many aspects of such future studies, especially collecting comprehensive phenotype information, in a phenome-wide approach including clinical, biological and patient-reported data. Within the next 10 years, based on such “deep”, i.e. detailed phenotype and environmental data and high throughput genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and immunologic approaches, different types of novel targets will be identified which can help physicians in selection of patients who more likely will respond beneficially to the therapy. Studies will also identify more objective biomarkers which can monitor clinical changes during the therapy and/or predict whether the therapy should be continued, terminated or alternative therapy should be applied.
Csaba Szalai
Semmelweis Egyetem
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: From genomes to diaries: a 3-year prospective, real-life study of ragweed-specific sublingual immunotherapy, Immunotherapy, November 2017, Future Medicine,
DOI: 10.2217/imt-2017-0093.
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