Position article and guidelines
Research needs in allergy: an EAACI position paper, in collaboration with EFA
1 Allergy Department, 2nd Pediatric Clinic, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
2 Transylvania University, Brasov, Romania
3 Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
4 University Hospital Ospedali Riuniti, Ancona, Italy
5 Allergy & Respiratory Diseases Clinic – DIMI, University of Genoa, IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy
6 Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain
7 University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
8 University Hospital Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
9 University Hospital of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
10 Children's Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
11 Polyclinique de l’Ormeau, Tarbes, France
12 Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital, Norwich, United Kingdom
13 Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, University of Torino, Torino, Italy
14 University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
15 Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland
16 University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
17 Krefting Research Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
18 Department of Pediatrics, University of Padua, Padova, Italy
19 Copenhagen University Hospital at Gentofte, Gentofte, Denmark
20 University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom
21 University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
22 University of Salerno, Fisciano, Salerno, Italy
23 Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
24 Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
25 European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients‘ Associations (EFA), Brussels, Belgium
26 Uveitis Center, Ophthamology epmn, Rapallo Hospital, Genova, Italy
27 Epidemiology of Allergic and Respiratory Disease, UMR-S 707 INSERM and UPMC Paris Sorbonnes, Paris, France
28 University of Florence, Florence, Italy
29 Hospital Universitario Príncipe de Asturias, Madrid, Spain
30 University of Regensburg, Germany / Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, United Kingdom
31 Research Laboratory, Carlos Hava Hospital, Malaga, Spain
32 Department of Internal Diseases, Geriatrics and Allergology, University of Medicine, Wroclaw, Poland
33 Allergy Unit, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata, Padova, Italy
34 Department of Internal Medicine, Lung Function Unit, "Sapienza", University of Rome, Rome, Italy
35 Department of Dermatology, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
36 Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
37 CK-CARE, ZAUM – Center of Allergy & Environment, Helmholtz Zentrum München/Technische Universität, Munich, Munich, Germany
38 Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
39 Royal Brompton Hospital, London, United Kingdom
40 Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
41 University Hospitals of Geneva, Medical School of the University of Geneva, Department of Child and Adolescent Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland
42 Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey
43 Chair and Department of Pediatrics, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland
44 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey
45 Centro Hospitalar São João EPE, Porto, Portugal
46 ErasmusMC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
47 Department of Medical Sciences “M. Aresu”, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
48 Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy
49 Pédiatre A, CHRU Clermont Ferrand, Clermont Ferrand, France
50 UMH University, Alicante, Spain
51 Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain
52 Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
53 St Thomas' Hospital & King's College London, London, UK
54 Royal Free Hospital, London, United Kingdom
55 Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
56 University Hospital Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
57 Polish Mother’s Memorial Hospital - Research Institute, Department of Opthalmology, Lodz, Poland
58 Klinik für Kinder und Jugendmedizin, St. Josef Hospital Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
59 Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
60 Medical University Vienna, Wien, Austria
61 Institute of Molecular Biology, Yerevan, Armenia
62 Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway
63 Pediatric Allergy and Asthma Unit, Ihsan Dogramaci Children’s Hospital, Hacettepe Univirsity School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
64 Allergie- & Asthma-Zentrum Berlin Westend, Berlin, Germany
65 Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 424 General Military Training Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
66 Department of Immunology, Rheumatology and Allergy, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
67 Charité C. Virchow University Children`s Hospital, Berlin, Germany
68 Hochgebirgsklinik, Davos-Wolfgang, Davos, Switzerland
69 Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
70 King's College London, London, United Kingdom
71 L'Institut du Thorax, Nantes, France
72 Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Lodz, Poland
73 Faculty of Medicine, ENT Department, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania
74 Center for Molecular Allergology, IDI-IRCCS, Rome, Italy
75 Unit of Pediatric allergy and Pneumology, Children’s Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain
76 Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, Manchester, United Kingdom
77 Department of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Mother Theresa School of Medicine, Tirana, Albania
78 German Red Cross Hospital Westend, Berlin, Germany
79 Centre for Allergy Research at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
80 Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
81 Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), University of Zurich, Christine Kühne-Center for Allergy Research and Education (CK-CARE), Davos, Switzerland
82 Allergy and Immunology Unit, Fondazione ‘Salvatore Maugeri’, Pavia, Italy
83 University of Ferrara at St. Anna Hospital, Ferrara, Italy
84 Internal Medicine Pad Maragliano, Genoa, Italy
85 Center for Rhinology and Allergology Wiesbaden, University Hospital Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
86 Dietetics and Nutritional Science Dept, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
87 Hospital La Paz Institute for Health Research, Madrid, Spain
88 Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Allergology/Immunology; Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany
89 School of Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
90 Hospital Divino Espirito Santo de Ponta Delgada, Ponta Delgada, Portugal
91 ENT Department, University Hospital Split, Split, Croatia
92 Hospital Civil, Malaga, Spain
93 Nr. 101 - Odilija Rudzeviciene, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
94 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
95 Center of Allergy & Immunology, Tbilisi, Georgia
96 Complesso Integrato Columbus, Rome, Italy
97 Department of Pediatric Allergy, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
98 Department of Pediatric Allergy, King's College London, MRC & Asthma UK Centre for the Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma, London, United Kingdom
99 Immunoallergology Department, Coimbra University Hospital, Coimbra, Portugal
100 Rimini Infermi Hospital, Rimini, Italy
101 Greifswald University Medical School, Greifswald, Germany
102 Klinikum rechts der Isar der TU München, ZAUM, Munich, Germany
103 Clinic for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology/Allergology, University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland, Bern, Switzerland
104 University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
105 Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Verona, Italy
106 Institute of Technology, Tartu University, Tartu, Estonia
107 Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
108 Occupational Medicine, Terni Hospital, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
109 National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
110 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland
111 Department of Experimental Dermatology and Cosmetology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
112 Emma Children's Hospital Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
113 Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria
114 Department of ENT and Pediatrics, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
115 Dept. of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
116 The David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre, Isle of Wight, England, United Kingdom
117 St James’s Hospital, England, United Kingdom
118 Charité - Universitaetsmedizin Dpt. of Dermatology, Berlin, Germany
Clinical and Translational Allergy 2012, 2:21 doi:10.1186/2045-7022-2-21
Published: 2 November 2012Abstract
In less than half a century, allergy, originally perceived as a rare disease, has become a major public health threat, today affecting the lives of more than 60 million people in Europe, and probably close to one billion worldwide, thereby heavily impacting the budgets of public health systems. More disturbingly, its prevalence and impact are on the rise, a development that has been associated with environmental and lifestyle changes accompanying the continuous process of urbanization and globalization. Therefore, there is an urgent need to prioritize and concert research efforts in the field of allergy, in order to achieve sustainable results on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this most prevalent chronic disease of the 21st century.
The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) is the leading professional organization in the field of allergy, promoting excellence in clinical care, education, training and basic and translational research, all with the ultimate goal of improving the health of allergic patients. The European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA) is a non-profit network of allergy, asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) patients’ organizations. In support of their missions, the present EAACI Position Paper, in collaboration with EFA, highlights the most important research needs in the field of allergy to serve as key recommendations for future research funding at the national and European levels.
Although allergies may involve almost every organ of the body and an array of diverse external factors act as triggers, there are several common themes that need to be prioritized in research efforts. As in many other chronic diseases, effective prevention, curative treatment and accurate, rapid diagnosis represent major unmet needs. Detailed phenotyping/endotyping stands out as widely required in order to arrange or re-categorize clinical syndromes into more coherent, uniform and treatment-responsive groups. Research efforts to unveil the basic pathophysiologic pathways and mechanisms, thus leading to the comprehension and resolution of the pathophysiologic complexity of allergies will allow for the design of novel patient-oriented diagnostic and treatment protocols. Several allergic diseases require well-controlled epidemiological description and surveillance, using disease registries, pharmacoeconomic evaluation, as well as large biobanks. Additionally, there is a need for extensive studies to bring promising new biotechnological innovations, such as biological agents, vaccines of modified allergen molecules and engineered components for allergy diagnosis, closer to clinical practice. Finally, particular attention should be paid to the difficult-to-manage, precarious and costly severe disease forms and/or exacerbations. Nonetheless, currently arising treatments, mainly in the fields of immunotherapy and biologicals, hold great promise for targeted and causal management of allergic conditions. Active involvement of all stakeholders, including Patient Organizations and policy makers are necessary to achieve the aims emphasized herein.
