¹Lobna A. El-Korashi*, Ola E. Nafea², Lamiaa G. Zake³, Faika Arab⁴, ¹Reham H. Anis

¹Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt

²Department of Clinical Toxicology and Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt

³Chest Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt

⁴Paediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt

DOI : https://doi.org/10.51429/EJMM30122

ABSTRACT

Background: 1, 25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 (VitD3) can improve the effect of allergen-specific immunotherapy (SIT). Few data is available about its role in childhood asthma. Objective: To assess the immunological and clinical efficacy of VitD3 as an adjuvant to allergen specific immunotherapy in pediatric asthma. Methodology: Sixty nine children with atopic asthma were divided into three groups: a group received subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) in combination with VitD3 (n=23), another group received SCIT alone (n=23), and the last group VitD3 alone (n=23). All children were assessed at baseline, and six months for rate of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) discontinuation, and serum levels of IL-10, and IL-17A. Results: In the SCIT + vitD3, ICS discontinuation rate was higher compared to VitD3 alone group and SCIT alone group at the end of 6^th month (P=0.555 and 0.016 respectively).  The combined SCIT+ VitD3 group showed significant increase of serum IL-10 level in comparison to SCIT alone group and VitD3 alone group (P=0.000) and significant decrease in serum IL-17A level compared to VitD3 alone group (P= 0.011) Conclusion: VitD3 enhance the clinical and immunological outcomes of SIT in pediatric asthma. Further investigation is needed to evaluate this effect in a larger scale to confirm its role as an adjunct to SIT.