Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
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Media contact: Michael Purdy (410) 955-8725
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February 21, 1997
ALLERGY, ASTHMA AND IMMUNOLOGY MEETINGS TIPSHEET
Below are three tips on presentations and posters by Johns Hopkins researchers at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, held in San Francisco this year from February 21 to 26. ALL ARE EMBARGOED FOR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 AT 5 P.M.
NASAL ALLERGY SYMPTOMS SEEN IN ALMOST ALL ASTHMATICS
Doctors treating children with persistently itchy, runny, or stuffy noses should closely watch the patient for early signs of allergic asthma, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers. Scientists found that nearly all allergic asthmatic patients had these types of chronic problems, which are known as rhinitis.
"Given what we're learning about the possibility of slowing asthma with preventive medicine, it's important to recognize asthma and begin treating it as soon as possible, and this study gives us a new clue for doing just that," says Alkis Togias, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins.
Previous efforts to assess the number of asthmatics with rhinitis had produced ambiguous results, Togias notes, with estimates ranging from 40 percent to 80 percent.
He speculates that this may have been because the issue wasn't directly and specifically probed in earlier studies. "In our new study, we had information on patients who were specifically asked if their nose was ever stuffy, runny or itchy, and if they ever had problems with sneezing," he explains.
If patients responded "yes" to two or more of those symptoms, they were classified as having rhinitis. Under these guidelines, 94 percent of a group of 300 adult asthmatics and 92 percent of a group of 116 adolescents had rhinitis.
"This is consistent with a new way of thinking about allergic asthma: one disease that affects one airway and should be treated accordingly," says Togias. For media inquiries only, contact Michael Purdy at 410-955-8725.
LATEX ALLERGY LINKED TO TWO DIFFERENT LATEX COMPONENTS
Johns Hopkins scientists working to develop a skin test for latex allergy have found that different patients can become sensitive to two different components of latex.
"To have a skin test that's accurate for the general population, we're going to need to include both soluble and rubber particle-associated protein components of latex," says Robert Hamilton, Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine.
Early diagnosis of latex allergy is critical, Hamilton notes, because symptoms worsen with repeated exposure. And in the most severe cases, people with this condition--like those allergic to bee stings--risk respiratory distress or even death.
An estimated 2 to 7 percent of all health care workers are at risk for developing latex allergies, according to Hamilton. In addition, approximately 30 to 40 percent of children with spina bifida develop the allergy.
Hamilton tested blood specimens from latex-allergic patients for their response to a spectrum of rubber particle and soluble latex proteins. He found that the patients who were health care workers were more likely to develop allergies to soluble latex proteins, which are attached to cornstarch powder coating the gloves that becomes airborne. The spina bifida patients predominantly became sensitized to insoluble rubber particle- associated latex proteins through physical contact with latex gloves during surgery. For media inquires only, contact Michael Purdy at (410) 955-8725.
SIMILAR ALLERGY PROTEINS RESPOND DIFFERENTLY TO DRUGS
Hopkins researchers have discovered that the control mechanisms of two proteins from a family of allergy-related compounds known as interleukins respond differently to allergens, allergy drugs and other stimuli.
"The proteins we looked at, IL-4 and IL-13, are both found in the lungs of allergic individuals," says John Schroeder, Ph.D., instructor of medicine. "They both can cause immune cells to start making IgE, a protein that is one of the driving forces behind allergy and asthma."
Schroeder is interested in the production of IL-4 and IL-13 by a rare type of immune cell known as a basophil. Because of their rarity, the role played by basophils in the development of allergies traditionally was given less attention. But Schroeder and others are convinced that they play an important part in the early stages of allergic disease.
Schroeder found that drugs and special proteins individually could shut down or decrease production of one interleukin while having the opposite effect or no effect at all on the other interleukin.
"This is important therapeutically, because it may mean that to treat allergy successfully we will have to find ways to bring both these interleukins under control," Schroeder notes. For media inquiries only, contact Michael Purdy at (410) 955-8725.
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