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The role of IgG antibodies in allergy and immunotherapy
Author(s) -
Aalberse R.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.363
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1398-9995
pISSN - 0105-4538
DOI - 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2011.02628.x
Subject(s) - immunoglobulin e , immunology , immunotherapy , antibody , allergy , allergen , medicine , immunoglobulin class switching , antigen , immune system , b cell
To cite this article: Aalberse R. The role of IgG antibodies in allergy and immunotherapy. Allergy 2011; 66 (Suppl. 95): 28–30. Abstract In specific immunotherapy (SIT), a beneficial response is associated with an increase in allergen‐specific IgG 4 . This does not indicate that IgE‐producing B cells have switched to IgG 4 production, because in human DNA, IgE is downstream from IgG 4 . Thus, by conventional switching, B cells should produce IgG 4 before IgE. This presentation discusses three possible hypotheses explaining the favourable association between IgG 4 and SIT, including that SIT causes B cells to become regulatory. Regulatory B cells may produce cytokines like IL‐10 that promote IgG 4 production. IgG 4 can undergo in vitro switching to create bispecific antibodies that recognize more than one antigen, which has important consequences for reducing IgE–allergen complexes in immunotherapy.