The J Int Med has a symposium series about the “origins of the developmental origins theory” scienceblog:doi:10.1111/j.1365-2796.2007.01809.x or the so called “Barker hypothesis” Continue reading Why we didn´t find the asthma gene
Ostepopontin (OPN) is a remarkable substance. The many aliases already point towards a multitude of biological functions: SPP1=secreted phosphoprotein 1, BSPI 1=bone sialoprotein-1, CIT, ETA-1, GC110940, nephropontin, osteoprotegerin, uropontin, bone sialoprotein I, early T-lymphocyte activation among others. Continue reading Osteopontin bridging air pollution and immunology of allergic inflammation
There already some rumors – an earlier Lancet perspective named asthma a symptom “like fever” (scienceblog:doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69271-4:). A new editorial now compares it to “diarrhea” Continue reading Asthma no more a disease but a symptom
Two decades ago, 10% calcium gluconate had been recommended for the treatment of anaphylaxis (couldn’t find any explanation for that but renember one of my teachers saying it will stabilize the membranes). There is now an update in scienceblog:doi:10.1038/ni1441: Continue reading Ca2+ and IgE
Here comes the reference to a first molecular system biology paper on asthma – something on my to-do list for 3 years. The authors constructed a biological interaction network using a database of curated molecular interactions. Continue reading Hubs and superhubs in asthma: low activity
Allergy (or at least an associated trait) may have its roots somewhere in Africa – where helminth infections are frequent. A new Nature Immunol Review has an overview but I am quite disappointed. From the abstract Continue reading Wormy world
During my visit last week in Berlin, I found a remarkable letter, that corrects some misbeliefs about the allergy prevalence at that time. Here is my transcript – use Babelfish to translate it. Continue reading Allergy research in Germany 1935
A funny question answered in Allergy.
After adjustment for age, sex, parental predisposition and social status, the risk of hay fever was more than double in subjects who lived together with a partner having the same disease (odds ratio 2.4 […]). If subjects lived together with an affected partner, the risk of developing the disease increased with the time the partners lived together (1-11 years, OR 1; 12-23 years, OR 1.8; 24-35 years, OR 7.4; 36-54 years, OR 13.7).
Whatever that means – improved recall, shared doctor, non random mating, shared food, transmissible agent in descending order – it has been noticed already 40 years ago by Montgomery Smith and Lloyd Knowler in the Am Rev Resp Dis 1965; 92:16:
A 3rd paper in nature genetics details the filaggrin gene structure: exon 3 has 10 repeats (as well as three variants FLG8+, FLG10+, FLF8+10+) and 15 SNPs – one of the few success stories in allergy research. In the discussion section, they ask the rhetoric question:
This study raises questions of interest to the complex trait field. Would SNP tagging of these multiple, relatively rare alleles, with frequencies no greater than 0.013, have readily identified this particularly strong susceptibility gene?
Nay, nay.
JACI has a paper in press that addresses this important question. The background is that allergen induced T-cell reactivitiy has been shown in cord blood – a strong argument that sensitization occurs transplacentally. Genotyping of these cells confirmed their fetal origin. It is unclear, however, if this is only a transient (normal?) reaction – and mothers want to know if they need to avoid for example peanuts during pregnancy. Rowe et al. now arrive at a clear conclusion Continue reading When are we being sensitized?
I have been batch printing PDFs for years with the built-in macro function of the Adobe Reader. For any unknown reason this doesn´t work anymore with my current OS / PDF / printer combination. The printer queue is always stuck or even detaches. I have therefore looked for a solution to delay the printing process. Most print utilitites do not help as I can´t delay spooling of print jobs. Here is my final solution – I am starting Acrobat first and send by DDE in long intervals a print command via pdfp
print.cmd
|wj_print.cmd|
Nature medicine news has a short text about the sunshine cure.
The strongest evidence available is perhaps for the vitamin’s protective role in MS. Several studies have documented a dramatic ‘sunshine belt’ […] Latitude also seems to play a role in the incidence of hormone-dependent cancers. […] The effect is almost certainly because of vitamin D, Feldman says. “People tend to think it can’t do all these things when it’s a vitamin,” notes Feldman. “It’s not a vitamin, it’s a hormone.”
As always there seems no fun without risk. We could add links to arteriosclerosis and allergy.
I have completed today the collection of all writings of Lucie Adelsberger, a well known allergy specialist in pre-war Berlin before she was sent to Auschwitz. The following CV is taken from her thesis in 1920: Continue reading CV Adelsberger
I am still thinking about coping and resilience, and have read again Antonovsky‘s salutogenesis concept of a continuum between health and disease.
If we are not lucky to find any risk factor Continue reading Salutogenesis