Russian thistle pollinosis: form allergen characterization to specific immunotherapy treatment.

Chenopodiacea/Amaranthacea pollen is an important cause of respiratory allergy around the world. The problem could be aggravated because in desert or desert-like countries, these weeds are used in greening programmes or as ornamental plants. As climate tendencies should maintain in future decades, relevance of Chenopodiacea/Amaranthacea pollen allergy will go up. Relationship between airborne pollen grains and symptoms may not follow conventional patterns, and a wide lag between pollen counts and symptoms has been observed. Allergens from Chenopodium album y Salsola kali are probably the best known. A mayor band protein of 40-43 kDa has been associated with the main Salsola kali allergen, named sal k 1 and now recognised as pectin methyltranspherase or glucose 3 phosphate dehidrogenase. Systemic immunotherapy is effective and safe, improving symptoms, medication intake and Quality of Life and also reduces cutaneous allergen response.