Intralymphatic allergen specific immunotherapy (ILIT) empowered by vitamin D - a novel approach to allergy vaccination

Despite use of standard of care medication most patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) are generally unsatisfied with their quality of life.

Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) can improve this but only 5% of the eligible patients receive and complete the required three years of treatment.

This mainly due to problems fulfilling the necessary hospital visits every 6 weeks for subcutis injections (SCIT) or poor compliance taking daily tablets at home (SLIT).Intralymphatic AIT (ILIT) conjure a novel route of delivery with shorter duration and good compliance (3 injections over 8 weeks).

Our previous studies have demonstrated that ILIT is safe with a sustained ability to reduce symptoms and medication during the pollen season. No studies have compared ILIT with traditional AIT.

A recent study has shown that oral vitamin D (vitD) given in parallel to SLIT improves the symptom reduction.Our aim is to investigate if supplementation of vitD in parallel with ILIT can further improve the efficacy.

We will also, for the first time, compare ILIT with SLIT.The study will run over four years and include 360 patients with grass pollen induced AR. 240 of them will be treated with ILIT and 120 will receive SLIT.

The former group will be given an im bolus injection of vitD3 or placebo before the first ILIT injection.A successful outcome will give a more easily accessible AIT protocol with high efficacy. It will also save money for the society and increase the quality of life for the patients.