Foreword: allergen immunotherapy.

摘要

This year is the 100th anniversary of the first scientific publication on allergen immuno-therapy. Leonard Noon, the father of allergen immunotherapy, called it "prophylactic inoculation against hay fever."1 In his pioneering article, he acknowledged that Dunbar in Hamburg, Germany, through his animal experiments, provided the initial scientific understanding for sensitivity to pollens. Alexandre Besredka in Paris was the first to successfully perform allergen hyposensitization in animals,2 The foregoing scientific works formed the foundation for "prophylactic inoculation" against hay fever. However, the concept of prophylactic inoculation, ie, vaccination, was introduced to the Western medicine more than 100 years earlier in 1798 by Edward Jenner.3 Therefore, it is likely that Leonard Noon applied the principle and method of vaccination to hay fever. Vaccination is arguably the biggest discovery in modem medicine.