Mechanisms of the Development of Allergy (MeDALL), a Seventh Framework
Program European Union project, aims to generate novel knowledge on the
mechanisms of initiation of allergy. Precise phenotypes of IgE-mediated
allergic diseases will be defined in MeDALL. As part of MeDALL, a
scientific seminar was held on January 24, 2011, to review current
knowledge on the IgE-related phenotypes and to explore how a
multidisciplinary effort could result in a new integrative translational
approach. This article provides a summary of the meeting. It develops
challenges in IgE-related phenotypes and new clinical and epidemiologic
approaches to the investigation of allergic phenotypes, including
cluster analysis, scale-free models, candidate biomarkers, and IgE
microarrays; the particular case of severe asthma was reviewed. Then
novel approaches to the IgE-associated phenotypes are reviewed from the
individual mechanisms to the systems, including epigenetics, human in
vitro immunology, systems biology, and animal models. The last chapter
deals with the understanding of the population-based IgE-associated
phenotypes in children and adolescents, including age effect in terms of
maturation, observed effects of early-life exposures and shift of focus
from early life to pregnancy, gene-environment interactions, cohort
effects, and time trends in patients with allergic diseases. This review
helps to define phenotypes of allergic diseases in MeDALL. (J Allergy
Clin Immunol 2012;129:943-54.