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In 1902, Charles Richet and Paul Portier invented the word "anaphylaxis". They came up with this term while researching other immunization research, and they discovered this life threatening response to medications and protein substances.
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The concept of "allergy" was introduced in 1906 by Clemens von Pirquet, a Viennese pediatrician. He came up with this concept after realizing that some of his patients were extremely sensitive to normally unharmful things like dust, pollen, and some foods.
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From 1911-1914, Leonard Noon and John Freeman established a basis for immunotherapy, or allergy shots. Immunotherapy involves injecting the patient with small, gradually increasing amounts of the substance that is causing the allergic reaction. The idea is that over time, the body's immune system will become less sensitive to the substance and the allergy symptoms will be reduced or eliminated.
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Daniel Bovet synthesized the first antihistamine drug. Today's antihistamine drugs are effective for treatment of sneezing, runny nose, itching, swellness, and redness of hives and some allergic rashes.
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Philip Hench and Edward Kendall discovered and introduced corticosteroids into clinical medicine, and these drugs were effective for the treatment of asthma, as well as both immediate and delayed allergic reactions, improving the lives of today's allergy sufferers.
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In 1963, a new classification system was developed by Philip Gell and Robin Coombs. This system separated all hypersensitivty reactions into four categories, known as Type 1 - Type 4 hypersensitivity. With this classification, the term "allergy" was restricted to Type 1 hypersensitivity only.
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In 1966, immunoglobulin E, or IgE for short, was discovered by Kimishige Ishizaka. IgE was an anitbody that is critical for allergic diseases, and its discovery was a major breakthrough in the field of allergy research. IgE bind itself to the body to a mast cell, and once it is bound, the mast cells are set into a "sensitized' condition. When an allergen enters the body, it will bind to IgE on the sensitized mast cells and trigger an allegic reaction.
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The radioallergosorbent test, or RAST test, was invented and marketed in 1974 by Pharmacia Diagnostics AB, Uppsala, Sweden. This method used IgE-binding antibodies labeled with radioactive isotopes for measuring the IgE levels in the blood.
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The EpiPen was made by Sheldon Kaplan. The first name of the pen was ComboPen, and the ComboPen was a device filled with an antidote used in the military that stopped a phosphorus-containing organic chemical in the body, and this chemical disrupts the mechanism that helps the nerves bring messages to the organs. Later, Sheldon decided to turn the ComboPen into an EpiPen, a device that brings epinephrine to the body.
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In 1989, Pharmacia Diagnostics Ab, Uppsala, Sweden, replaced the RAST method with a superior test, called the ImmunoCAP Specific IgE blood test.
