**Antihistaminic Treatment, Allergen‐Specific Immunotherapy, and Blockade of IgE as Alternative Allergy Treatments Immunotherapy, and Blockade of IgE as Alternative Allergy Treatments**

**Antihistaminic Treatment, Allergen**‐**Specific** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.69912

Olga Lima Tavares Machado, Débora Mothé de Campos‐Mesquita and Thais Pacheco‐Soares Mothé de Campos‐Mesquita and Thais Pacheco‐Soares Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Olga Lima Tavares Machado, Débora

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69912

#### **Abstract**

Allergies mediated by immunoglobulin E (IgE) are the most common immunological hypersensitivity diseases. The prevalence has been continuously increasing in recent decades, and more than 25% of the population is currently affected. Symptoms of aller‐ gies can be observed in the skin and respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, and systemic manifestations include anaphylactic shock. If an allergy is not properly diagnosed and treated, it tends to progress to a severe and chronic debilitating disease. Understanding the mechanisms by which the immune system induces and controls allergic inflamma‐ tion depends on knowing the structure of several allergens and identifying epitopes, which are critical for the design of new strategies for treating allergies. Strategies for immunotherapy will be reviewed. Allergen‐specific immunotherapy has been used for nearly a century and remains one of the few antigen‐specific treatments for inflammatory diseases. There is a strong rationale for improving the efficacy of allergen‐specific immu‐ notherapy by reducing the incidence and severity of adverse reactions mediated by IgE. Approaches to address this problem, including the use of modified allergens, synthetic peptides as vaccines, and alternative strategies for blocking IgE, will be discussed.

**Keywords:** IgE blocker, antihistaminic, immunotherapy
