Single-allergen Sublingual Immunotherapy versus Multi-allergen Subcutaneous Immunotherapy for Children with Allergic Rhinitis

• Published in: Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Medical sciences Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 407 - 411
• Main Authors: Wang, Zhong-xi, Shi, Han
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wuhan Huazhong University of Science and Technology 01.06.2017; Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China%Department of Gerontology, Central Hospital of Taizhou, Taizhou 380000, China; Laboratory of Allergology, Institute of Immunology
• Subjects: Adolescent; aimed; Allergens - administration & dosage; Allergens - immunology; allergic; Animals; Antigens, Dermatophagoides - administration & dosage; Antigens, Dermatophagoides - immunology; Biomarkers - blood; Child; comparable; extracts; Female; Humans; Immunotherapy; Injections, Subcutaneous; Interleukin-4 - blood; Leukocytes, Mononuclear - chemistry; Leukocytes, Mononuclear - immunology; Male; medication; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Prospective Studies; Pyroglyphidae - chemistry; Pyroglyphidae - immunology; rhinitis; Rhinitis, Allergic - blood; Rhinitis, Allergic - immunology; Rhinitis, Allergic - physiopathology; Rhinitis, Allergic - therapy; subcutaneous; Sublingual Immunotherapy - methods; Treatment Outcome; versus; sublingual immunotherapy; multi-allergen; allergic rhinitis; children; subcutaneous immunotherapy; single allergen
• ISSN: 1672-0733; 1993-1352; 1993-1352
• DOI: 10.1007/s11596-017-1748-2

It has always been controversial whether a single allergen performs better than multiple allergens in polysensitized patients during the allergen-specific immunotherapy. This study aimed to examine the clinical efficacy of single-allergen sublingual immunotherapy（SLIT） versus multi-allergen subcutaneous immunotherapy（SCIT） and to discover the change of the biomarker IL-4 after 1-year immunotherapy in polysensitized children aged 6–13 years with allergic rhinitis（AR） induced by house dust mites（HDMs）. The AR polysensitized children（n=78） were randomly divided into two groups： SLIT group and SCIT group. Patients in the SLIT group sublingually received a single HDM extract and those in the SCIT group were subcutaneously given multiple-allergen extracts（HDM in combination with other clinically relevant allergen extracts）. Before and 1 year after the allergen-specific immunotherapy（ASIT）, the total nasal symptom scores（TNSS）, total medication scores（TMS） and IL-4 levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells（PBMCs） were compared respectively between the two groups. The results showed that the TNSS were greatly improved, and the TMS and IL-4 levels were significantly decreased after 1-year ASIT in both groups（SLIT group： P〈0.001; SCIT group： P〈0.001）. There were no significant differences in any outcome measures between the two groups（for TNSS： P〉0.05; for TMS： P〉0.05; for IL-4 levels： P〉0.05）. It was concluded that the clinical efficacy of single-allergen SLIT is comparable with that of multi-allergen SCIT in 6–13-year-old children with HDM-induced AR.