Respiratory allergy including bronchial asthma and food allergy have gained epidemic character in the last decades in industrialized countries. Much has been learned with respect to the pathophysiology of allergic disease and this has facilitated specific therapies. Allergy is a chronic disease, and being so prevalent claims to search for evolutionary causes of the general susceptibility of humans as a species to react to environmental antigens in a Th2 type immune reaction with IgE production. In an evolutionary analysis of Allergy, necessary questions addressed in this review are "Why does IgE exist or why did IgE evolve?" as well as from the point of view of the mismatch hypothesis, "Why is there an Allergy epidemic?" Recent studies on the possible biological and protective role of IgE against parasites, arthropods, venoms or toxins are challenging the widely accepted definition of allergens as generally innocuous antigens. Combining the immunologic danger model and the toxin hypothesis for allergies, the allergic response could have evolved with an adaptive value and allergens could be proxies for other putative noxious agents. The last decades yielded with vast molecular data of allergens. With available bioinformatics tools, we therefore also describe that evolutionary theory could be applied to prevent allergy, estimate cross-reactivity, to design allergen-specific immunotherapy and to assess the risks of novel foods.

中文翻译：

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进化框架中的过敏。

在过去的几十年中，在工业化国家，包括支气管哮喘和食物过敏在内的呼吸道过敏已成为流行病。关于变应性疾病的病理生理学已经学到很多，这已经促进了特定的疗法。变态反应是一种慢性疾病，因此非常普遍地寻求寻找人类普遍易感性的进化原因，因为人类会在产生IgE的Th2型免疫反应中与环境抗原发生反应。在对变态反应的进化分析中，本综述中讨论的必要问题是“为什么存在IgE或为什么IgE会进化？” 以及从错配假说的观点来看，“为什么会有过敏流行？” IgE对寄生虫，节肢动物的可能生物学和保护作用的最新研究 毒液或毒素正在挑战被广泛接受的将过敏原定义为无害抗原的定义。结合免疫危险性模型和过敏原的毒素假说，过敏反应可能具有适应性价值，并且过敏原可能是其他假定的有毒物质的代理。最近几十年产生了大量的过敏原分子数据。因此，利用现有的生物信息学工具，我们还描述了进化理论可以用于预防过敏，评估交叉反应，设计过敏原特异性免疫疗法以及评估新型食品的风险。过敏反应可能具有适应性价值，并且过敏原可能是其他假定的有害物质的代理。最近几十年产生了大量的过敏原分子数据。因此，利用现有的生物信息学工具，我们还描述了进化理论可以用于预防过敏，评估交叉反应，设计过敏原特异性免疫疗法以及评估新型食品的风险。过敏反应可能具有适应性价值，并且过敏原可能是其他假定的有害物质的代理。最近几十年产生了大量的过敏原分子数据。因此，利用现有的生物信息学工具，我们还描述了进化理论可以用于预防过敏，评估交叉反应，设计过敏原特异性免疫疗法以及评估新型食品的风险。