Why a New Journal on Allergies?

The new journal’s title Allergies (ISSN 2313-5786) answers the titular question because among all the existing journals devoted to allergies, few pretend to be exhaustive and cover all possible aspects of allergology. Allergies is intended to fill this gap by providing the most comprehensive possible coverage of a science in constant evolution.

Over the past decade, allergology has grown steadily with the development of diagnosis based on molecular allergens and the new concepts introduced in the regulation of allergic response at the cellular and molecular levels. Awareness of the social and financial impact of allergies in all their forms, which currently comprise the fourth leading cause of chronic human diseases in the world, has played an obvious role in these developments.

Different areas of allergies such as food allergies have intensely developed with the discovery of new food allergens, linked to the introduction of novel foods or novel food preparation processes. Similarly, the complexity of non-IgE mediated allergic responses associated with celiac disease and severe gluten intolerance has quickly become, beyond a trending effect, an important area of research. Other areas, such as the potential allergenicity associated with the introduction of new proteins expressed in genetically modified plants (GMPs) into the human diet, deserve special attention.

Asthma and its associated pollinosis treatment have also undergone sustained research efforts, with the increasing development of sublingual immunotherapy in the treatment of grass pollen-induced allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.

The allergological aspects of viral, bacterial and fungal infections comprise another area of research that is closely related to the COVID-19 epidemic and could be further developed.

In addition, attention should be paid to the clinical aspect of allergology regarding reports of well-documented clinical cases of anaphylaxis associated with the identification and characterization of its responsible allergen(s). These clinical reports, which were previously widely available in allergological journals, are now more rarely published, and this is regrettable because of their obvious clinical interest.

Accordingly, the list of topics addressed by Allergies was chosen to encompass all of these aspects of allergies, and members forming the topics and editorial boards were carefully selected because of their recognized skills and expertise in these different areas. Particular attention was paid to the selection of topics editors, who are particularly promising young allergologists. Allergies is a young international journal that aims to reach the allergologist community for the benefit of us all. We are confident that this journal will grow rapidly and contribute to the dissemination of peer-reviewed allergology data.