The findings of this study indicate that allergen injection therapy with modified HDM extract is superior to placebo in allergic rhinitis therapy. The treatment was well tolerated and no serious drug-related AE were observed.

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Background: Early pollen flight and new allergens prolonging the pollen season means that the time for up-dosing of allergen-specific subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) outside the pollen season becomes shorter. Hence, for patients who wish or need to be up-dosed faster, an accelerated induction regimen would provide a useful treatment option. Methods: An accelerated up-dosing regimen (0.1-0.3-0.5 mL at weekly intervals) was compared to conventional up-dosing (0.05-0.1-0.2-0.3-0.4-0.5 mL at weekly intervals) using an allergoid birch pollen SCIT preparation. After up-dosing, the maintenance dose (0.5 mL) was given 3 times at biweekly intervals. The multicenter study was performed according to an open randomized, parallel-group design. Results: A total of 123 birch pollen-allergic patients (81 adults and 42 adolescents) presenting with rhinitis or rhinoconjunctivitis with or without mild asthma (FEV₁ >70%) were randomized to either the conventional registered up-dosing or an accelerated regimen. In total, 96.7 and 98.4% successfully reached the maintenance dose for the conventional and accelerated regimen, respectively, without relevant differences between adults and adolescents. Both regimens were safe and well tolerated. Furthermore, significant increases (similar in size) in specific IgG and IgG₄ after 3 months of treatment were observed in both groups, independent of age. Conclusion: The accelerated SCIT regimen was revealed to be as safe as the conventional regimen, and the immunological effects of both regimens are similar. Accordingly, the accelerated regimen may be used to up-dose patients of adult as well adolescent age within 2 weeks.

Summary: Equilibrium models are derived and applied to in vivo binding of spiperone in the rat brain. The models express the concentration of the ligand in the striatum and frontal cortex as a function of the accumulation in the cerebellum. The models differ with respect to the descrip tion of specific binding. Nonlinear regression analysis shows that the in vivo specific binding of 3H-Iabeled spip erone in the frontal cortex (mainly serotonergic) can be described by a noninteracting sites model, whereas the specific binding in the striatum (mainly dopaminergic) can best be described by models that lead to sigmoid satura tion curves. These results were tested and partly con firmed by determining the region-of-interest/cerebellar ra dioactivity ratio of ttC-Iabeled N-methylspiperone, withTo understand the role of dopamine receptors in human brain pathologies and the antipsychotic ac tions of dopamine antagonists, the in vivo charac terization of the dopamine receptor is required. Data obtained from in vitro experiments may not always apply to in vivo situations. The microenvi ronment of the receptor and the affinity and number of available binding sites may be modified during in vitro processing. Recently, such disparities be tween in vivo and in vitro with respect to spiperone