PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Andrzej Bożek
AU  - Andreas Fischer
AU  - Agnieszka Bogacz-Piaseczynska
AU  - Giorgio Walter Canonica
TI  - Adding a biologic to allergen immunotherapy increases treatment efficacy
AID  - 10.1183/23120541.00639-2022
DP  - 2023 Jan 01
TA  - ERJ Open Research
PG  - 00639-2022
4099  - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2023/01/05/23120541.00639-2022.short
4100  - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2023/01/05/23120541.00639-2022.full
AB  - Background The application of AIT in combination with biological agents has been found to increase both the safety and efficacy of the desensitization procedure in patients with food and insect venom allergy.The aim of our study was to compare the effectiveness of allergen immunotherapy in patients with house dust mite (HDM) - driven asthma treated with and without omalizumab.Materials and methods The study was a placebo-controlled, three-armed, randomized, parallel-group, multicentre trial that included 52 patients with HDM-driven asthma. Only patients with monosensitization to HDM were included. The study compared three patterns of therapy: omalizumab alone, house dust mite injection immunotherapy (HDM SCIT)+ omalizumab and SCIT alone. The main outcomes were evaluate the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) score, number of asthma exacerbations and reduction in the daily dose of inhaled steroids during 12 months of observation.Results All variants of therapy led to significantly improved ACQ scores and reducted of asthma exacerbations in all study groups after 12 months of treatment. A statistically significant reduction in the daily doses of ICS in the group with omalizumab alone (650±150 mcg versus 500±50 mcg for p=0.003) or HDM-SCIT+omalizumab (550±250 mcg versus 375±75 for p=0.001) was observed, favoring the latter group.Conclusion The efficacy of AIT for house - dust mite driven asthma is significantly increased by the combination of allergen vaccine with omalizumab.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.