Zeitschrift für Allergie und Therapie

Abstrakt

Immunotherapy Monitoring Through Liposomes-An Altered Form of Bio-Sensing

Renuka Devi SK

Allergic reactions are caused by allergens belongs to the category of type-I hypersensitivity. The systemic release of histamine as a result of allergic reaction can be fatal anaphylaxis, creating a necessity to improve the efficiency of the treatment that is rendered to patients suffering from this hyper-sensitivity. The generally administered drugs include anti-histamine drugs, steroids and other oral medications but these drugs neutralizes the molecules released after the pseudo-infection, but not the misconception exercised by the immune system and only a temporary relief is achieved. An alternative is allergen immunotherapy, in which the patient is treated with a large dosage of the allergens leading to hyposensitization to the allergens. However anaphylaxis may happen. Hence, monitoring this treatment is vital.

In this paper, the methodology of immunotherapy monitoring is given. The monitoring is carried out by liposomes that are made to carry address tags-monoclonal antibodies. The liposomes envelop the histamine molecules, which are emitted on reaching target site and designed in such a way that they emit fluorescence on enveloping histamine. Increased histamine secretion (higher amount of fluorescence) denotes the inefficacy of the treatment and suppressed levels denote otherwise, hence can be used as an online biosensor. This paper deals with subsequent monitoring of the same, thereby avoiding further complications.