Correspondence Address:
S N Gaur
Editor-in-Chief, IJAAI; Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi
India

Full Text

This is the first issue of the Indian Journal of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (IJAAI) (vol. 27, no. 1) of 2013. Our efforts will continue to improve it further and for that I request your cooperation by submitting your scientific papers online and for the reviewer to respond in time. The journal is now available online and the online link to the journal ( www.journalonweb.com/ijaai ) offers authors and reviewers an interactive platform to submit and follow the progress of their submitted articles. Authors/reviewers are requested to communicate thorough this facility and henceforth, we will not encourage submission/communication through post. The journal is now indexed with many scientific indexing bodies. Efforts are being made to get the journal indexed with other databases also.

This issue contains a review article on microRNA in asthma. The article is based on Dr. D. N. Shivpuri's oration delivered by Dr. Balram Ghosh. The article discusses the role of a newly discovered endogenous class of small noncoding RNAs, known as microRNA (miRNA), found to influence the developmental regulation. It was observed to modulate diverse physiological processes in diseases including asthma by effecting IL-10 expression as evidenced by the study in ovalbumin-induced asthma animal models. Three-fold increase in miRNA106a was found inversely correlated with lower levels of IL-10. Inhibitors of miRNa-122 are being used in phase-III clinical trials in patients of chronic hepatitis-C virus (HCV) and are showing promising results. The author recommended the use of inhibitors in asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Another review article on Allergen Immunotherapy is in line with the one published in the last issue, which deals with the basic concepts of allergen immunotherapy in detail.

Continuous increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is seen in asthma, is responsible for frequent and severe exacerbations by potentiating the Th2 response. This is also relevant for other allergic conditions. An interesting animal study of academic interest has demonstrated that supplementation of antioxidants like glutathione S-transferase (mGST) alone or in combination with reduced glutathione (GSH) reduces airway inflammation in mice. This can further reduce airway inflammation by addition of more antioxidants like alpha-lipoic acid or alpha-tocopherol.

Another article from Nigeria is an evaluation survey using asthma control test (ACT) to find out the asthma control in their population. The study found a low level of asthma control and is mainly due to nonadherence to the recommendation of the asthma guidelines. A paper on retrospective analysis of the clinical profile, immunological parameters in hospitalized patients of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) at a rural setting at Sevagram, Maharashtra, found >97% positive immunological parameters, mainly ANA, D3DNA and high frequency of muco-cutaneous, hematological, and renal involvement. The involvement of respiratory system was seen in approximately 12% cases in the form of pleural effusion, interstitial lung disease, and tuberculosis. A follow-up study performed at Jaipur involving already diagnosed and under treatment cases of asthma, observed that spirometry was very much underused for diagnosis, the inhalational therapy was less recommended, and the asthma education was practically not done.

Psychology plays an important role in allergic diseases. This has been documented and discussed in a paper where it has been observed that more and more psychological problems are seen in allergic diseases. Hence it was recommended that in cases of allergic diseases, an evaluation of accompanying psychological traits and their treatment is useful for better control. An animal study on the effect of silkmoth allergen on the lymphoid organ of Albino mice is yet another paper where it was observed that the Th2 type immunological response is seen in the spleen cells of the mice sensitized with silkmoth allergen.

Another paper, which is more of academic interest and is a case report, emphasizes the use of fluordeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for confirmation of the diagnosis and for follow up the response in a case of Tropical Pulmonary Eosinophilia. However, the investigation is not cost effective at present, since less expensive tests are already available for the diagnosis and thus it can only be used selectively for problematic cases. An interesting and rare case of Henoch-Schonlein purpura, supposed to be developed after wild bee bite, is discussed in a case report cum letter to editor.

Finally, this issue contains selected and interesting abstracts of scientific papers presented at the annual conference of the Indian College of Allergy, Asthma and Applied Immunology (ICAAICON-20120 held at BHU, Varanasi during November 2-4, 2012).

We request researchers/allergologists/clinicians/allergists who are associated with research on allergy, asthma, and immunology to contribute research articles in the form of original research and case reports for publishing in the IJAAI.We welcome suggestions for improvements in the journal.

We thank all the pharmaceutical concerns and advertisers for financial support to the journal.

Wish you happy reading!