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Cockroach, Tick, Storage Mite, and Other Arthropod Allergies: Molecular Aspects

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Abstract

Arthropods form an extensive phylum of the animal kingdom, comprising widely varying members such as insects, arachnids, chitin-exoskeleton “shellfish” (e.g., crabs, shrimp, and lobsters), and centipedes. In addition to worldwide common allergies to house dust mites or hymenoptera venom, other allergies may become important in certain areas and are attributed to three major sources of allergens: cockroaches, ticks, and storage mites. Other less common allergen sources include spiders, mosquitoes, horseflies, red chironomid (midge) larvae, silverfish, and ladybugs, as well as a variety of storage pests. At present, only extract-based test systems are available for the majority of allergens in IgE-based diagnostics. Molecular characterization of numerous individual allergens has already been carried out. However, these individual allergens are only available for a small number of sources (e.g., cockroaches and storage mites) in routine diagnostics. Particularly in the case of allergen sources with known high cross-reactivity, the use of marker allergens is believed to improve diagnostics. The currently known individual allergens of the abovementioned allergy triggers from the arthropod realm are summarized, and their potential use in allergy diagnostics is discussed.

The present chapter is based on, and modified from, an article by the authors published in 2014 in Allergo Journal International (Hilger C, Kuehn A, Raulf M, Jakob T: Cockroach, tick, storage mite and other arthropod allergies: Where do we stand with molecular allergy diagnostics? Allergo J Int 2014; 23: 172–178).

The authors gratefully thank Dr. Steve Love, PhD, Laguna Niguel, CA, USA, for reading the manuscript and editorial assistance with the English translation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Allergology – Immunology – Inflammation Research Unit, Department of Infection and Immunity, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    C. Hilger PhD & A. Kuehn PhD, Prof.

  2. Center Allergology/Immunology, Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    M. Raulf PhD

  3. Basic Research Department, Indoor Biotechnologies, Inc, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    A. Pomés PhD

  4. Department of Dermatology and Allergology, University Medical Center Giessen (UKGM), Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

    T. Jakob MD, Prof.

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  1. C. Hilger PhD
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  2. A. Kuehn PhD, Prof.
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  3. M. Raulf PhD
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  4. A. Pomés PhD
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  5. T. Jakob MD, Prof.
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Correspondence to C. Hilger PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of Dermatology and Allergology, Allergy and Asthma Center Westend Outpatient Clinic Hanf, Ackermann and Kleine-Tebbe, Berlin, Germany

    Jörg Kleine-Tebbe

  2. Professor of Dermatology and Allergology Chairman of the Department of Dermatology and Allergology, University Medical Center Gießen and Marburg Campus Gießen Justus Liebig University Gießen, Gießen, Germany

    Thilo Jakob

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Hilger, C., Kuehn, A., Raulf, M., Pomés, A., Jakob, T. (2017). Cockroach, Tick, Storage Mite, and Other Arthropod Allergies: Molecular Aspects. In: Kleine-Tebbe, J., Jakob, T. (eds) Molecular Allergy Diagnostics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42499-6_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42499-6_23

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