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Second-generation antihistamines have a better risk:benefit ratio than first-generation antihistamines, indicating that the latter should be avoided or their use limited in children whenever possible. Levocetirizine and fexofenadine were perceived by parents and physicians to produce significantly higher treatment satisfaction than the majority of the other antihistamines with respect to overall efficacy and tolerability, and impact on the child's sleep and school activities. The newer antihistamine levocetirizine seems to be a preferred and appropriate future treatment choice for children with allergic diseases.

Presently, sports and energy drinks are widely spread not only among athletes, but also among ordinary people of different ages. The purpose of these beverages is to effectively compensate for the loss of water, energy and electrolytes in the human body before or after some exhausting activities. A questionnaire survey on energy drinks conducted in all eight federal districts of the Russian Federation shows that the younger groups of the Russian population (aged 12–17 and 18–30) drink tonic beverages more often than the older groups (aged 31–45 and 45–60). Further, a recent rise in unreasonable consumption of sports and energy drinks among teenagers may lead to various diseases: obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and tooth enamel erosion. Finally, the authors analyse the composition of energy beverages and thoroughly describe each of their main components (L-carnitine, creatine, caffeine, taurine, and juice-containing products). These components are used by athletes due to their effects: L-carnitine helps reduce the signs of physical and mental overstrain, and stimulates working capacity; creatine improves endurance and anaerobic activity; caffeine raises aerobic endurance by increasing the oxidation of fats, thereby helping preserve glycogen in the muscles; taurine plays an important role as an antioxidant protector in the regulation of Ca++ transport, and as a regulator of osmotic pressure in the tissues.

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The weed wall pellitory, Parietaria judaica, is one the most important pollen allergen sources in the Mediterranean area causing severe symptoms of hay fever and asthma in allergic patients. We report the expression of the major Parietaria allergens, Par j 1 and Par j 2 which belong to the family of lipid transfer proteins, in insect cells. According to circular dichroism analysis and gel filtration, the purified allergens represented folded and monomeric proteins. Insect cell-expressed, folded Par j 2 exhibited higher IgE binding capacity and more than 100-fold higher allergenic activity than unfolded Escherichia coli-expressed Par j 2 as demonstrated by IgE ELISA and basophil activation testing. IgE ELISA inhibition assays showed that Par j 1 and Par j 2, contain genuine and cross-reactive IgE epitopes. IgG antibodies induced by immunization with Par j 2 inhibited binding of allergic patients IgE to Par j 1 only partially. IgE inhibition experiments demonstrated that insect cell-expressed Par j 1 and Par j 2 together resembled the majority of allergenic epitopes of the Parietaria allergome and therefore both should be used for molecular diagnosis and the design of vaccines for allergen-specific immunotherapy of Parietaria allergy.