Abstract
In the last few years, the use of recombinant DNA techniques for the characterization of atopic allergens offered new aspects for diagnosis and therapy of Type I allergies (1). It has made it possible to produce large quantities of well characterized “wild-type” recombinant allergens, or first-generation recombinant products, and many of them are now being developed for diagnosis and possibly therapy of Type I allergies. For instance, recombinant Asp f 1 expressed in E. coli was successfully used for serologie and clinical diagnosis of A. fumigatus allergy (2). It has been demonstrated that the use of two recombinant birch pollen allergens, Bet v 1 and Bet v 2 (profilin), allows accurate in vitro (ELISA, immunoblots) and in vivo (skin prick test, intradermal test) diagnosis of birch pollen allergy (3,4). In addition, recombinant Bet v 1 could be efficiently used for identifying food cross-sensitization induced by Bet v 1-related proteins (4). These studies demonstrate that recombinant allergens are adequate tools for in vivo and in vitro allergen-specific diagnosis, which might be considered as an important step towards allergen-specific therapy. Presently, specific-immunotherapy is performed using. natural allergen extracts that may contain, besides the desired allergen, other unwanted components.
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Ferreira, F. et al. (1996). Modulation of IgE-Binding Properties of Tree Pollen Allergens by Site-Directed Mutagenesis. In: Sehon, A., HayGlass, K.T., Kraft, D. (eds) New Horizons in Allergy Immunotherapy. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 409. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5855-2_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5855-2_17
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