As we have often suggested, allergy doesn’t solely depend on IgE. For many years, the only allergies that were imaginable were those that depended on IgE’s. However, the latest issue of JACY described an allergy model observed in laboratory mice that was absolutely innovative. Allergy doesn’t just depend on IgE’s and mast cells, but also on other antibodies (IgG’s),different receptors and most of all activated cells (macrophages). Different meanings, different regulations and different diagnoses. Allergology’s knowledge base is at an historic crossroad, even though many doctors will give it superficial consideration and continue to prescribe antihistamines without reflecting on the new possibilities for therapy

Italian version

Until today, the allergic reaction in mice had always been quite similar to that of human beings. Therefore, with due caution in consideration of the difference in species, we can safely assume that the anaphylactic reaction described by Fred Finkelman in the last number of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (Finkelman FD. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007;120:506-15)   is applicable to human beings as well.
This means that all of the allergological analyses formulated prior to today were partial. The many people who, after suffering from an acute allergic reaction (from urticaria to swelling), were told that they had no allergies because only the IgE's were tested can suspect that the information that they were given was incomplete at best.

The description of allergy with two routes, a classic one and an alternative one, comes too close to the classic model of delayed food allergies to not make us think that it's (as Sampson disclosed) a model that's always present in the body, more or less side by side with the IgE type reaction.

The American researcher Finkelman explains that there are two types of anaphylaxes (type 1 acute allergy):

• Classic route: IgE, histamine, mast cell and IgE receptor modulated, stimulated by small amounts of antigen, small quantities of antibodies are also present.
• Alternative route: IgE, macrophage, IgG receptor and PAF (factor linked to platelet reaction) modulated, stimulated by large quantities of antigens, and repeated over time, considerable quantities of antibodies are also present.

However, we must keep in mind the fact that the IgG's are perfectly able to create tolerance phenomena when faced with a classic allergy. This is because an increase in IgG's can stop the allergic reaction in a decisive way.

In order to treat allergies, today's allergists must come to terms with an additional piece of scientific reality. They can no longer evade their patients' systematic request to go beyond the diagnostic immediacy of the IgE test.

In order to study delayed food allergies (intolerances) we can only reassert the need for a diagnosis that evaluates cell reaction (ALCAT ,DRIA).The results that have been obtained up to today, along with the scientific evidence of this new discovery, prove that we were right.

Italian version