Research needs in allergy: an EAACI position paper, in collaboration with EFA.

Nikolaos Papadopoulos (1) , Ioana Agache (2) , Sevim Bavbek (3) , Beatrice Bilo (4) , Fulvio Braido (5) , Victoria Cardona (6) , Adnan Custovic (7) , Jan Demonchy (8) , Pascal Demoly (9) , Philippe Eigenmann (10) , Jacques Gayraud (11) , Clive Grattan (12) , Enrico Heffler (13) , Peter Hellings (14) , Marek Jutel (15) , Edward Knol (16) , Jan Lötvall (17) , Antonella Muraro (18) , Lars Poulsen (19) , Graham Roberts (20) , Peter Schmid-Grendelmeier (21) , Chrysanthi Skevaki (1) , Massimo Triggiani (22) , Ronald Vanree (23) , Thomas Werfel (24) , Breda Flood (25) , Susanna Palkonen (25) , Roberta Savli (25) , Pia Allegri (26) , Isabella Annesi-Maesano (27) , Francesco Annunziato (28) , Dario Antolin-Amerigo (29) , Christian Apfelbacher (30) , Miguel Blanca (31) , Ewa Bogacka (32) , Patrizia Bonadonna (33) , Matteo Bonini (34) , Onur Boyman (21) , Knut Brockow (35) , Peter Burney (36) , Jeroen Buters (37) , Indre Butiene (38) , Moises Calderon (39) , Lars Olaf Cardell (40) , Jean-Christoph Caubet (41) , Sevcan Celenk (42) , Ewa Cichocka-Jarosz (43) , Cemal Cingi (44) , Mariana Couto (45) , Nicolette Dejong (46) , Stefano del Giacco (47) , Nikolaos Douladiris (1) , Filippo Fassio (48) , Jean-Luc Fauquert (49) , Javier Fernandez (50) , Montserrat Fernandez Rivas (51) , Marta Ferrer (52) , Carsten Flohr (53) , James Gardner (54) , Jon Genuneit (55) , Philippe Gevaert (56) , Anna Groblewska (57) , Eckard Hamelmann (58) , Hans Jürgen Hoffmann (59) , Karin Hoffmann-Sommergruber (60) , Lilit Hovhannisyan (61) , Valérie Hox (14) , Frode Jahnsen (62) , Ömer Kalayci (63) , Ayse Füsun Kalpaklioglu (64) , Jörg Kleine-Tebbe (64) , George Konstantinou (65) , Marcin Kurowski (66) , Susanne Lau (67) , Roger Lauener (68) , Antti Lauerma (69) , Kirsty Logan (70) , Antoine Magnan (71) , Joanna Makowska (72) , Heidi Makrinioti (36) , Paraskevi Mangina (1) , Felicia Manole (73) , Adriano Mari (74) , Angel Mazon (75) , Clare Mills (76) , Ervinç Mingomataj (77) , Bodo Niggemann (78) , Gunnar Nilsson (79) , Markus Ollert (80) , Liam O'Mahony (81) , Serena O'Neil (17) , Gianni Pala (82) , Alberto Papi (83) , Gianni Passalacqua (84) , Michael Perkin (71) , Oliver Pfaar (85) , Constantinos Pitsios (86) , Santiago Quirce (87) , Ulrike Raap (24) , Monika Raulf-Heimsoth (88) , Claudio Rhyner (83) , Paula Robson-Ansley (89) , Rodrigo Rodrigues Alves (90) , Zeljka Roje (91) , Carmen Rondon (92) , Odilija Rudzeviciene (93) , Franziska Ruëff (94) , Maia Rukhadze (95) , Gabriele Rumi (96) , Cansin Sackesen (97) , Alexandra Santos (98, 99) , Annalisa Santucci (100) , Christian Scharf (101) , Carsten Schmidt-Weber (102) , Benno Schnyder (103) , Jürgen Schwarze (104) , Gianenrico Senna (105) , Svetlana Sergejeva (106) , Sven Seys (107) , Andrea Siracusa (108) , Isabel Skypala (39) , Milena Sokolowska (109) , Francois Spertini (110) , Radoslaw Spiewak (111) , Aline Sprikkelman (112) , Gunter Sturm (113) , Ines Swoboda (60) , Ingrid Terreehorst (114) , Elina Toskala (115) , Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann (35) , Carina Venter (116) , Berber Vlieg-Boerstra (46, 83) , Paul Whitacker (117) , Margitta Worm (118) , Paraskevi Xepapadaki (1) , Cezmi Akdis (83)

1 Allergy Department
2 Transylvania University
3 Ankara University
4 University Hospital Ospedali Riuniti
5 Allergy & Respiratory Diseases Clinic - DIMI
6 Vall d'Hebron University Hospital [Barcelona]
7 Respiratory Research Group
8 Department of Allergology
9 Département Pneumologie et Addictologie
10 Pediatric Allergy Unit
11 Allergologie
12 Dermatology Centre
13 Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche
14 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head, and Neck Surgery
15 Department of Clinical Immunology
16 Department of Dermatology/Allergology (G02* 124)
17 Department of Internal Medicine
18 Department of Pediatrics
19 Laboratory of Medical Allergology
20 Faculty of Medicine
21 Allergy Unit - Department of Dermatology
22 Neurologica Clinic
23 Department of Experimental Immunology
24 Department of Dermatology and Allergy
25 EFA - European Federation of Allergy
26 Ophthamology epmn
27 ESIM - Epidémiologie des maladies infectieuses et modélisation
28 Department of Internal Medicine
29 Allergology
30 UR - Universität Regensburg
31 Research Laboratory
32 Department of Internal Diseases, Geriatrics and Allergology
33 Allergy Unit
34 Department of Internal Medicine
35 Department of Dermatology
36 Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health
37 CK-CARE, ZAUM - Center of Allergy & Environment
38 Pediatric Allergy Unit
39 Section of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
40 Division of ENT diseases
41 Department of Child and Adolescent Medicine
42 Department of Biology
43 Chair and Department of Pediatrics
44 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery
45 Serviço de Imunoalergologia
46 ErasmusMC
47 Department of Medical Sciences "M. Aresu"
48 Allergologia ed Immunologia Clinica
49 Pédiatre A
50 UMH University
51 Hospital Clínico San Carlos
52 Universidad de Navarra
53 Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital [London]
54 Royal Free Hospital [London, UK]
55 Universität Ulm - Ulm University [Ulm, Allemagne]
56 Ghent University Hospital
57 ICZMP - Polish Mother’s Memorial Hospital Research Institute [Lodz]
58 Klinik für Kinder und Jugendmedizin
59 Aarhus University Hospital
60 Medizinische Universität Wien = Medical University of Vienna
61 Institute of Molecular Biology
62 Oslo University Hospital [Oslo]
63 Pediatric Allergy and Asthma Unit
64 Allergie- & Asthma-Zentrum Berlin Westend
65 Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
66 Department of Immunology
67 Charité - UniversitätsMedizin = Charité - University Hospital [Berlin]
68 Hochgebirgsklinik
69 Skin and Allergy Hospital
70 King‘s College London
71 ITX - ITX - unité de recherche de l'institut du thorax
72 Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
73 University of Oradea
74 Center for Molecular Allergology
75 Unit of Pediatric allergy and Pneumology
76 Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre
77 Department of Allergology and Clinical Immunology
78 German Red Cross Hospital Westend
79 Centre for Allergy Research at Karolinska Institutet
80 TUM - Technische Universität Munchen - Technical University Munich - Université Technique de Munich
81 Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF)
82 Allergy and Immunology Unit
83 UniFE - Università degli Studi di Ferrara = University of Ferrara
84 Internal Medicine Pad Maragliano
85 Center for Rhinology and Allergology = Zentrum für Rhinologie und Allergologie
86 Dietetics and Nutritional Science Dept
87 Hospital La Paz Institute for Health Research
88 IPA - Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance
89 School of Life Sciences
90 Hospital Divino Espirito Santo de Ponta Delgada
91 ENT Department
92 Hospital Civil
93 Nr. 101 - Odilija Rudzeviciene
94 LMU - Ludwig Maximilian University [Munich] = Ludwig Maximilians Universität München
95 Center of Allergy & Immunology
96 Complesso Integrato Columbus
97 Department of Pediatric Allergy
98 Department of Pediatric Allergy
99 Immunoallergology Department
100 Rimini Infermi Hospital
101 Greifswald University Hospital
102 MRI TUM - Klinikum rechts der Isar
103 Clinic for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology/Allergology
104 Edin. - University of Edinburgh
105 Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria
106 Institute of Technology
107 Department of Microbiology and Immunology
108 Occupational Medicine
109 Critical Care Medicine Department
110 Division of Immunology and Allergy [Lausanne, Suisse]
111 Department of Experimental Dermatology and Cosmetology
112 AMC - Academic Medical Center - Academisch Medisch Centrum [Amsterdam]
113 Department of Dermatology
114 Department of ENT and Pediatrics
115 Department of Otorhinolaryngology
116 Allergy Research Centre
117 SpR
118 Department of Dermatology

ABSTRACT: 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.

Mots clés: Allergy; Allergic diseases; Policy; Research needs; Research funding; Europe

Domaines: Immunologie

Nikolaos Papadopoulos, Ioana Agache, Sevim Bavbek, Beatrice Bilo, Fulvio Braido, et al.. Research needs in allergy: an EAACI position paper, in collaboration with EFA.. Clinical and Translational Allergy, 2012, 2 (1), pp.21. ⟨10.1186/2045-7022-2-21⟩. ⟨inserm-00771547⟩