Allergy Bioinformatics Introduction

Allergy is a mistargeted immune reaction that occurs after the body has been primed by a certain antigen known as allergen and is subsequently restimulated by the same antigen to generate clinical symptoms and transient or chronic organ dysfunction. Allergic diseases affect mainly the skin and mucosal tissues such as sinuses, lung and the gut. Under certain conditions the hypersensitivity reaction is systemic and in this case it can be fatal due to systemic reaction. Over the last few decades the prevalence of allergic diseases in Western countries has been increasing across age, sex and racial groups and its annual healthcare costs have risen substantially. It is estimated that 20 % of the US population and approximately 36 % of the Chinese population suffer from some type of allergic disease. The study of the biochemical and immunological properties of allergens has been an important focus of allergy in addition to the bioinformatics of allergens, which consists of computer science, statistics, mathematics, and engineering aiming to dissect the biochemistry and immune properties of allergens at multiple levels. We envision that the use of bioinformatics will play a more important role in biomedical research of allergy in the future and promote the development of related disciplines and industries that will be of great practical importance.