Developments in the field of allergy in 2014 through the eyes of Clinical and Experimental Allergy

B J Hales, N Hizawa, M Jenmalm, E Sverremark-Ekström, A J Wardlaw

The pathogenesis of asthma continues to be a major topic of interest to our authors with reviews and original papers on the role of viruses, mechanisms of inflammation, biomarkers and phenotypes of asthma being major topics. A number of papers described new treatments for asthma focusing on blocking the Th2 response reflecting the fact that two decades of work in this area is finally bearing fruit. The pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis is a growing area of interest, but there has been less on the genetics of airways disease than in previous years possibly reflecting the degree of rigour (and therefore a smaller body of work), with which these sorts of studies are now being undertaken. There continues to be a wide range of papers dealing with mechanisms of allergic disease ranging from clinical based studies to basic research and the use of in vivo animal models especially mice. As before mechanisms and new approaches to immunotherapy are common themes. Several were published in the allergens section investigating modification of allergens to increase their effectiveness and reduce the risk of adverse events. Risk factors for allergic disease was a common theme in the epidemiology section and food allergy a common theme in clinical allergy with papers on the development of protocols to induce tolerance and attempts to find biomarkers to distinguish sensitization from allergic disease. Another exciting year for the editors and we hope the readers of the journal. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.