Title:Historical Anecdotes and Breakthroughs of Histamine: From Discovery to Date
Volume: 21
Issue: 5
Author(s): Ioannis A. Charitos, Francesca Castellaneta, Luigi Santacroce* Lucrezia Bottalico
Affiliation:
- CEDICLO – Interdepartmental Research Center for Pre-Latin, Latin and Oriental Rights and Culture Studies, University of Bari, Bari,Italy
Keywords:
Allergy, biological modulators, anaphylactic reactions, histamine, history of pharmacology, history of medicine,
mast cells.
Abstract:
Aim: Investigating about the history of allergies and discovery of the histamine’s role in the
immune response through historical references, starting with ancient anecdotes, analysing the first
immunization attempts on animals to understand its importance as the anaphylaxis mediator. Moreover,
we shortly resume the most recent discoveries on mast cell role in allergic diseases throughout the
latest updates on its antibody-independent receptors.
Methods: Publications, including reviews, treatment guidelines, historical and medical books, on the
topic of interest were found on Medline, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Web of Science, Google
Scholar, Elsevier’s (EMBASE.comvarious internet museum archives. Texts from the National Library
of Greece (Stavros Niarchos Foundation), from the School of Health Sciences of the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens (Greece). We selected key articles which could provide ahistorical and
scientific insight into histamine molecule and its mechanism of action’s discovery starting with Egyptian,
Greek and Chinese antiquity to end with the more recent pharmacological and molecular discoveries.
Results: Allergic diseases were described by medicine since ancient times, without exactly understanding
the physio-pathologic mechanisms of immuno-mediated reactions and of their most important biochemical
mediator, histamine. Researches on histamine and allergic mechanisms started at the beginning
of the 20th century with the first experimental observations on animals of anaphylactic reactions.
Histamine was then identified as their major mediator of many allergic diseases and anaphylaxis, but
also of several physiologic body’s functions, and its four receptors were characterized. Modern researches
focus their attention on the fundamental role of the antibody-independent receptors of mast
cells in allergic mechanisms, such as MRGPRX2, ADGRE2 and IL-33 receptor.
Conclusion: New research should investigate how to modulate immunity cells activity in order to better
investigate possible multi-target therapies for host’s benefits in preclinical and clinical studies on
allergic diseases in which mast cells play a major role.