Advances in patent applications related to allergen immunotherapy

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Allergies are among the most prevalent chronic diseases worldwide. Allergen-specific immunotherapy is used as an alternative treatment to pharmacotherapy. These immunotherapies are performed with crude extracts, which have disadvantages when compared to the new approaches, among them are recombinant proteins and hypoallergens. This review aims to assess immunotherapy for allergies through patent application analysis spanning recent decades.

Areas covered: Patents referring to allergen immunotherapies used in allergy treatment. Data were obtained from the Espacenet® website, using the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system. Two-hundred-and-one patent applications were analyzed, taking into consideration their classification by the type of technology and applicant.

Expert opinion: Allergen-specific immunotherapy represents the only potentially curative therapeutic intervention for the treatment of allergic diseases. The extract-based immunotherapy is being replaced by the use of recombinant allergens, highlighting the hypoallergenic forms, which have low IgE-binding while retaining T-cell reactivity. It is expected that the development of hypoallergens will expand the scope of allergen-specific immunotherapy, especially if associated with alternative systems for expression and delivery systems with future potential. Furthermore, these new developments will likely address the problem of long-term protocols in allergen-specific immunotherapy, thus allowing better patient adherence and compliance.

KEYWORDS:

• Allergen-specific immunotherapy
• allergy
• DNA shuffling
• hypoallergens
• in silico mutagenesis
• patent applications
• recombinant peptides
• technology assessment

Article highlights

• Comprehensive technological assessment review based on patent applications referring to SIT for the treatment of allergies including new approaches in the area.

• The dissemination of recombinant DNA technology in the last decades led to a dramatic increase in the number of patents dealing with recombinant allergens and peptides thereof.

• The type of technology most frequently patented in the period ranging from 1998 to 2014 was the recombinant allergens and peptides thereof.

• The European companies were the sector with the highest number of patents on recombinant allergens and peptides thereof.

• Extract-based preparations are being replaced in SIT by recombinant allergens, mainly as hypoallergenic derivatives.

• The latest patents claiming engineered hypoallergens with low IgE-binding and conserved T cell reactivity seem to be more convenient, efficient, and safer.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of interest

E Santos da Silva is recipient of scholarships from Support by Research’s Foundation of the State of Bahia (FAPESB) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil (CNPq), Science without borders program. CM Quintellla and NM Alcântara-Neves are recipients of research fellowships from CNPq. This review was funded by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Project nº. 077/2012. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.