The current issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology reviews the use of CRISPR technology in the treatment of allergy/immunology, which is important to examine, as the first successful human use of CRISPR for a metabolic disorder was just reported at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. The issue also contains a wide range of other topics of interest to the practicing clinician, including chronic cough and food allergy.
Dr. Sathe Wijeyesinghe, et al. review the use of CRISPR in inborn errors of immunity for which clinical trials might be occurring sooner rather than later. Dr. Jay A. Lieberman discusses the pros and cons of gene editing in the accompanying editorial. These are exciting times as novel therapies are on the horizon.
Chronic cough is another field with new therapies being developed that will affect our practice. The review article by Dr. Anju T. Peters et al. highlights the new medications that might be arriving soon. The final review focuses on interpreting tryptase and challenges in diagnosing mast cell diseases, with decision points for various mast cell levels with a 95% upper limit of tryptase of 8.2 mg/L.
There are several articles on food allergy, ranging from Dr. Kessel Aharon’s study on whether breast-feeding is protective for food allergy; the use of skin prick test and specific IgE testing to diagnose baked milk allergy by Dr. Mujde Tuba Cogurlu and colleagues, including optimal values of casein specific IgE and skin prick testing for making a food allergy diagnosis. The incidence of food allergy reactions in high-risk adolescents is reported from an observational study looking at epinephrine carriage rates by Dr. Roxanne Dupuis and colleagues. In this interesting study, the incidence of food allergic reactions among adolescents with food allergy was 34.0 events per 100 person-years, indicating a real but not a very large risk.
As you read this issue of Annals (our 81st year of publication!) we hope you are having a successful year and enjoying the end of spring and beginning of summer. And, as always, if you have any comments, please consider sending correspondence to Annals (email us at annals@ACAAI.org). We always excited to hear how Annals has helped you improve the lives of your patients!
Jonathan Spergel, MD, PHD, FACAAI
Deputy Editor
