The house-dust mite (HDM), commonly found in human dwellings, is an important source of inhalant and contact allergens. In this report, the importance of HDM allergy in Korea and the characteristics of allergens from dust mite are reviewed with an emphasis on investigations performed in Korea. In Korea, Dermatophagoides farinae is the dominant species of HDM, followed by D. pteronyssinus. Tyrop...

Background: In order to characterize human antibodies with specificity for mite allergens at the molecular level, a scFv phage display library was constructed using peripheral blood mononuclear lymphocytes from an asthma patient allergic to mite as Ig gene sources. Methods: Immunoglobulin VH and V gene fragments were obtained by polymerase chain reaction, and randomly combined in pCANTAB-5E vec...

BACKGROUND The most effective measure in house dust mite antigen reduction is mattress encasing with an impermeable membrane. A reduction in encasing costs will help increase patients' compliance in mite antigen avoidance. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effectiveness of partial mattress encasing with a nylon sheet produced in Thailand on the reduction of group I mite antigens from beddings. M...

Oral mite anaphylaxis is a new syndrome characterized by severe allergic symptoms occurring immediately after eating foods made with mite-contaminated wheat flour. This syndrome, which is more prevalent in tropical environments, is triggered more often by pancakes, and for that reason, it has been designated "the pancake syndrome." Because cooked foods are able to induce the symptoms, it has be...

BACKGROUND Shrimp and house dust mite (HDM) allergies are common in Canadians. Often, both of these allergies occur in the same patient. This may be due to homology of tropomyosin or other potentially shared proteins. The aim of our study was to assess the frequency of house dust mite sensitization in a shrimp allergic Canadian population. METHODS We undertook a retrospective chart review of ...

Background: Skin contact with house dust mites may contribute to atopic dermatitis and other skin diseases. We sought to determine if molecules from house dust mites could influence the release of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines from epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts grown in a human skin equivalent (HSE) model. Methods: HSEs consisting of an epidermis of keratinocytes wit...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of avoidance of house-dust-mite allergen (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus 1 [Der p1]) in the management of asthma is uncertain. METHODS We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of allergen-impermeable bed covers involving 1122 adults with asthma. The primary outcomes were the mean morning peak expiratory flow rate over a four-week period du...

The astigmatid mite Sarcoptes scabiei is the causative agent of scabies, a highly infectious parasitic disease of the skin. Although the mite causes marked hypersensitivity reactions, particularly in crusted (severe) scabies, little is known about the specific scabies mite molecules involved in such immunologic responses. We have identified six genes encoding scabies mite homologues of mu and d...

Sarsfield, J. K., Gowland, G., Toy, R., and Norman, A. L. E. (1974). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 49, 716. Mite-sensitive asthma of childhood: trial of avoidance measures. A trial of the effects ofmeasures designed to reduce exposure to house-dust mites was performed on 14 children with mite-sensitive asthma. These measures reduced mite infestation of the beds and were associated with clin...

BACKGROUND For respiratory allergic disorders in children, sublingual immunotherapy has been developed as an alternative to subcutaneous immunotherapy. Sublingual immunotherapy is more convenient, has a good safety profile and might be an attractive option for use in primary care. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study was designed to establish the efficacy of sublingual immunothera...