Intralymphatic immunotherapy for mountain cedar pollinosis: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Allergen immunotherapy can provide long-term benefits, including symptomatic relief and reduced disease progression, but it requires a lengthy regimen that presents barriers to patient adherence. Thus, there is a need for improved approaches to immunotherapy. Recently, several clinical trials have reported successful results from intralymphatic immunotherapy. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of intralymphatic immunotherapy for allergies caused by mountain cedar pollen in a proof-of-concept study. METHODS: A total of 21 patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis because of mountain cedar pollen were randomized to receive 3 monthly intralymphatic injections of allergenic extract or placebo before the 2018-2019 mountain cedar pollen season. Safety was monitored during treatment to the end of the pollen season using structured and spontaneous reports. Clinical efficacy information was collected using a daily electronic diary of symptoms and allergy medication. Allergen-specific serum immunoglobulin E was assessed before treatment and at the end of the study. RESULTS: There were no serious adverse events or systemic reactions in either group. A total of 4 patients experienced mild injection-site reactions. Patients receiving intralymphatic immunotherapy experienced a significant improvement in allergy symptoms and medication use relative to patients receiving placebo (P < .001), and the active treatment group had lower average total combined scores on 20 of 27 days during the peak pollen season (P < .05). There was no significant difference among groups in changes to mean mountain cedar-specific serum immunoglobulin E levels. CONCLUSION: In this proof-of-concept trial, intralymphatic immunotherapy was well tolerated and improved the symptoms and medication use associated with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis caused by mountain cedar pollen. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under the registration number NCT03682965 before the enrollment of the first subject.

Overcoming Carrier Concentration Limits in Polycrystalline CdTe Thin Films with In Situ Doping.

Thin film materials for photovoltaics such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper-indium diselenide-based chalcopyrites (CIGS), and lead iodide-based perovskites offer the potential of lower solar module capital costs and improved performance to microcrystalline silicon. However, for decades understanding and controlling hole and electron concentration in these polycrystalline films has been extremely challenging and limiting. Ionic bonding between constituent atoms often leads to tenacious intrinsic compensating defect chemistries that are difficult to control. Device modeling indicates that increasing CdTe hole density while retaining carrier lifetimes of several nanoseconds can increase solar cell efficiency to 25%. This paper describes in-situ Sb, As, and P doping and post-growth annealing that increases hole density from historic 1014 limits to 1016-1017 cm-3 levels without compromising lifetime in thin polycrystalline CdTe films, which opens paths to advance solar performance and achieve costs below conventional electricity sources.