BACKGROUND: Insect venom immunotherapy (VIT) is the only causative treatment of insect venom allergy (IVA). The immunological mechanism(s) responsible for long-term protection achieved by VIT are largely unknown. A better understanding is relevant for improving the diagnosis, prediction of anaphylaxis, and monitoring and simplifying treatment of IVA. OBJECTIVE: To find genes that are differentially expressed during the maintenance phase of VIT and after stopping, to get clues about the pathways involved in the long-term protective effect of immunotherapy. METHODS: Whole genome gene expression analysis was performed on RNA samples from 50 patients treated with VIT and 43 healthy controls. Patients were divided into three groups: (1) before the start of VIT; (2) on maintenance phase of VIT for at least 3 years still receiving injections; and (3) after VIT. RESULTS: Of all 48,804 probes present in the array, 48,773 transcripts had sufficient data for further analysis. The list of genes that were differentially expressed (at least log2 FC > 2; P < .05 corrected for multiple testing) during the maintenance phase of VIT as well as after successful VIT contains 89 entities. The function of these genes affects cell signaling, cell differentiation, and ion transport. CONCLUSION: This study shows that a group of genes is differentially expressed both during and after VIT in comparison with gene expression in patients before VIT. Although the results of this study should be confirmed prospectively, the relevance of these findings is supported by the fact that they are related to putative mechanisms of immunotherapy.
BACKGROUND: Insect venom immunotherapy (VIT) is the only causative treatment of insect venom allergy (IVA). The immunological mechanism(s) responsible for long-term protection achieved by VIT are largely unknown. A better understanding is relevant for improving the diagnosis, prediction of anaphylaxis, and monitoring and simplifying treatment of IVA. OBJECTIVE: To find genes that are differentially expressed during the maintenance phase of VIT and after stopping, to get clues about the pathways involved in the long-term protective effect of immunotherapy. METHODS: Whole genome gene expression analysis was performed on RNA samples from 50 patients treated with VIT and 43 healthy controls. Patients were divided into three groups: (1) before the start of VIT; (2) on maintenance phase of VIT for at least 3 years still receiving injections; and (3) after VIT. RESULTS: Of all 48,804 probes present in the array, 48,773 transcripts had sufficient data for further analysis. The list of genes that were differentially expressed (at least log2 FC > 2; P < .05 corrected for multiple testing) during the maintenance phase of VIT as well as after successful VIT contains 89 entities. The function of these genes affects cell signaling, cell differentiation, and ion transport. CONCLUSION: This study shows that a group of genes is differentially expressed both during and after VIT in comparison with gene expression in patients before VIT. Although the results of this study should be confirmed prospectively, the relevance of these findings is supported by the fact that they are related to putative mechanisms of immunotherapy.
Authors: Nikolaos G Papadopoulos; Ioana Agache; Sevim Bavbek; Beatrice M Bilo; Fulvio Braido; Victoria Cardona; Adnan Custovic; Jan Demonchy; Pascal Demoly; Philippe Eigenmann; Jacques Gayraud; Clive Grattan; Enrico Heffler; Peter W Hellings; Marek Jutel; Edward Knol; Jan Lötvall; Antonella Muraro; Lars K Poulsen; Graham Roberts; Peter Schmid-Grendelmeier; Chrysanthi Skevaki; Massimo Triggiani; Ronald Vanree; Thomas Werfel; Breda Flood; Susanna Palkonen; Roberta Savli; Pia Allegri; Isabella Annesi-Maesano; Francesco Annunziato; Dario Antolin-Amerigo; Christian Apfelbacher; Miguel Blanca; Ewa Bogacka; Patrizia Bonadonna; Matteo Bonini; Onur Boyman; Knut Brockow; Peter Burney; Jeroen Buters; Indre Butiene; Moises Calderon; Lars Olaf Cardell; Jean-Christoph Caubet; Sevcan Celenk; Ewa Cichocka-Jarosz; Cemal Cingi; Mariana Couto; Nicolette Dejong; Stefano Del Giacco; Nikolaos Douladiris; Filippo Fassio; Jean-Luc Fauquert; Javier Fernandez; Montserrat Fernandez Rivas; Marta Ferrer; Carsten Flohr; James Gardner; Jon Genuneit; Philippe Gevaert; Anna Groblewska; Eckard Hamelmann; Hans Jürgen Hoffmann; Karin Hoffmann-Sommergruber; Lilit Hovhannisyan; Valérie Hox; Frode L Jahnsen; Omer Kalayci; Ayse Füsun Kalpaklioglu; Jörg Kleine-Tebbe; George Konstantinou; Marcin Kurowski; Susanne Lau; Roger Lauener; Antti Lauerma; Kirsty Logan; Antoine Magnan; Joanna Makowska; Heidi Makrinioti; Paraskevi Mangina; Felicia Manole; Adriano Mari; Angel Mazon; Clare Mills; Ervinç Mingomataj; Bodo Niggemann; Gunnar Nilsson; Markus Ollert; Liam O'Mahony; Serena O'Neil; Gianni Pala; Alberto Papi; Gianni Passalacqua; Michael Perkin; Oliver Pfaar; Constantinos Pitsios; Santiago Quirce; Ulrike Raap; Monika Raulf-Heimsoth; Claudio Rhyner; Paula Robson-Ansley; Rodrigo Rodrigues Alves; Zeljka Roje; Carmen Rondon; Odilija Rudzeviciene; Franziska Ruëff; Maia Rukhadze; Gabriele Rumi; Cansin Sackesen; Alexandra F Santos; Annalisa Santucci; Christian Scharf; Carsten Schmidt-Weber; Benno Schnyder; Jürgen Schwarze; Gianenrico Senna; Svetlana Sergejeva; Sven Seys; Andrea Siracusa; Isabel Skypala; Milena Sokolowska; Francois Spertini; Radoslaw Spiewak; Aline Sprikkelman; Gunter Sturm; Ines Swoboda; Ingrid Terreehorst; Elina Toskala; Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann; Carina Venter; Berber Vlieg-Boerstra; Paul Whitacker; Margitta Worm; Paraskevi Xepapadaki; Cezmi A Akdis Journal: Clin Transl Allergy Date: 2012-11-02 Impact factor: 5.871