The Clinical Core (Core D) will be a resource to provide peripheral blood for T cell studies from well characterized allergic rhinitis and asthma subjects to be used in each of the three projects comprising this LIAI U19 Program (Sette, Project 1;Peters, Project 2;Rao, Project 3), To allow the investigation of longitudinal changes in T cell responses in relation to allergen exposure, peripheral blood will be obtained at time points before, during and after the Timothy Grass (TG) pollen season in subjects with seasonal TG induced allergic rhinitis and asthma. In addition to obtaining blood during seasonal exposure to TG, blood will also be collected before and after TG nasal or inhalation allergen challenge in allergic rhinitis and asthma subjects. These studies will determine whether T cell/immune responses are similar or different in allergic rhinitis compared to asthma subjects sensitized to the same allergens. The influence of specific immunotherapy (SIT) with TG on T cell responses will be investigated by obtaining peripheral blood for study before institution of SIT and during the maintenance phase of SIT. These studies will provide insight into both the T cell responses induced by SIT, as well as determine whether there are differences in the T cell response in subjects who are, or are not, desensitized to TG pollen following SIT.
An improved understanding of the immune response to common inhaled allergens such as grass pollen, dust mite, and cat allergens in subjects with sinus allergies and asthma will assist in identifying immune pathways that need to be dampened down to make such allergic patients not have symptoms on exposure to these allergens.
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