Current Standards and Improvements in the Use of SLIT Tablets for Allergen Immunotherapy

Abstract

The clinical use of sublingual allergen immunotherapy (SLIT) can be traced back several decades. Ever since that first use, scientists have sought to develop new ways of application for immunotherapy. SLIT with aqueous formulations was mainly used but has a number of practical limitations, such as the need for refrigeration, poor dosing accuracy, and allergen spreading from the sublingual zone to other enoral and pharyngeal regions. Solid pharmaceutical formulations of allergen extracts in the form of freeze-dried sublingual tablets have been first clinically studied in the 1990s and were followed by DBPC prospective studies from 2006 onwards. Today, there are numerous different products of fast dissolving SLIT tablets for several allergens. Their clinical use and scientific background and evidence are discussed.