BUMC PROCEEDINGS 2001;14:106–107 D uring a drug history, the most common drug allergies cited are those experienced after the administration of a penicillin, with a reported allergy incidence of 1% to 10% in patients who receive drugs in this class (1). Penicillins, as well as other beta-lactam antibiotics such as cephalosporins, carbapenems, and monobactams, contain a beta-lactam ring (2). The...

Estimates of human αβ TCR diversity suggest that there are <10(8) different Ag receptors in the naive T cell pool, a number that is dwarfed by the potential number of different antigenic peptide-MHC (pMHC) molecules that could be encountered. Consequently, an extremely high degree of cross-reactivity is essential for effective T cell immunity. Ag recognition by T cells is unique in that it invo...

To provide broad immunity to a vast array of foreign antigens with a limited number of T lymphocytes, each cell has to recognize many targets. By implementing a strategy to identify T cell receptor (TCR) ligands and investigating at a fine granularity their structure and sequence relationship, Birnbaum et al. demonstrate the surprisingly tight focus of such T cell cross-reactivity.

Allergy to beet is very rare. Until now, only a few reports about asthma induced by inhaling the vapor of cooked beet have been published. We describe two patients with allergic rhinitis and positive skin prick tests to Parietaria and beet only. To investigate possible cross-reactivity between Parietaria pollen and beet, we performed laboratory assays that showed beet-specific IgE in the sera o...

In patients with respiratory allergy, cross-reactivity between aeroallergens and foods may induce food allergy, symptoms ranging from oral allergy syndrome to severe anaphylaxis. Clinical entities due to IgE sensitization to cross-reactive aeroallergen and food allergen components are described for many sources of plant origin (pollen-food syndromes and associations, such as birch-apple, cypres...

Tripeptidyl peptidase II (TPP II) is a large intracellular exopeptidase with an active site of the subtilisin type. Affinitypurified hen antibodies against human erythrocyte TPP II cross-reacted with fibronectin in an immunoblot analysis. Furthermore, antibodies against human fibronectin cross-reacted with TPP II. Antibodies against a 65 kDa cell-binding fragment of fibronectin specifically rea...

The bifunctional P protein (chorismate mutase : prephenate dehydratase) from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus has been purified. It was homogeneous in polyacrylamide gels and was more than 95% pure on the basis of the immunostaining of purified P protein with the antibodies raised against the P protein. The native enzyme is a homodimer ( M , = 91 000) composed of 45-kDa subunits. A twofold increase ...

Evolution of H1N1 influenza A outbreaks of the past 100 years is interesting and significantly complex and details of H1N1 genetic drift remains unknown. Here we investigated the clinical characteristics and immune cross-reactivity of significant historical H1N1 strains. We infected ferrets with H1N1 strains from 1943, 1947, 1977, 1986, 1999, and 2009 and showed each produced a unique clinical ...

BACKGROUND Lupine is used increasingly in food products. The development of lupine allergy in peanut-allergic patients is believed to occur as a result of cross-reactivity between lupine and peanut proteins. OBJECTIVE To investigate the degree of immunoglobulin (Ig) E cross-reactivity between allergens in lupine and peanut. METHODS We investigated IgE cross-reactivity between lupine alpha-,...