The infection of CD4+ cells by HIV leads to the progressive destruction of CD4+ T lymphocytes and, after a severe reduction of CD4+ cells, to AIDS. The aim of the study was to investigate whether HIV-infected patients with CD4 cell counts <200 cells/µl can suffer from symptoms of IgE-mediated allergy, produce allergen-specific IgE antibody responses and show boosts of allergen-specific IgE prod...

BACKGROUND During allergen-specific sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), the relevance of changes in specific IgE and IgG antibody titres to treatment efficacy remains to be evaluated at an individual patient level. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether antibody responses can be used as biomarkers for SLIT efficacy. METHODS Comprehensive quantitative, qualitative and functional analyses of allergen-...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES It is important to monitor the threat of allergenic pollen during the whole season, because of practical application in allergic rhinitis treatment, especially in the specific allergen immunotherapy. The aim of the study was to propose the forecast models predicting the pollen occurrence in the defined pollen concentration categories related to the patient exposure a...

The IgE-facilitated allergen binding (IgE-FAB) assay represents an in vitro model of facilitated allergen presentation. Allergen-IgE complexes are incubated with an EBV-transformed B cell line and complexes bound to CD23 on the surface of cells are detected by flow cytometry. The addition of serum from patients who have received allergen-specific immunotherapy has been shown previously to inhib...

Allergy prevalence has increased in industrialized countries. One contributing factor could be pollution, which can cause nitration of allergens exogenously (in the air) or endogenously (in inflamed lung tissue). We investigated the impact of nitration on both the structural and immunological behavior of the major birch pollen allergen Bet v 1.0101 to determine whether nitration might be a fact...

BACKGROUND Even though the Parietaria pollen season may be rather long, many physicians think that Parietaria pollen is a perennial allergen present along the whole year. In fact, many doctors prefer to prescribe allergen immunotherapy (AIT) in Parietaria allergic patients, using continuous courses. On the other hand, physicians usually prescribe pre-co-seasonal AIT course for other pollen alle...

Pollen grains from Populus tomentosa, a widely cultivated tree in northern area of China, are considered to be an important aeroallergen causing severe allergic diseases. To gain insight into their allergenic components, mature Populus tomentosa pollen proteins were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectro...

Grass pollen is the main cause of hay fever and allergic asthma in warm temperate climates during summer. The aim of this study was to determine the content of group 5 major allergens in pollen grains of agriculturally important grass species/cultivars. For each cultivar flowering dates and pollen production of cut anthers were observed in the field and in a climate chamber, respectively. An EL...

BACKGROUND : Cypress pollen is becoming an increasing cause of respiratory allergy in some regions worldwide. OBJECTIVE : The aim of this study was to determine some of the main allergens implicated in the common cypress (C. sempervirens) pollen allergy. METHODS : Pollen extracts were optimized by using some detergents and chaotropes in order to solubilize both water and non-water soluble p...

BACKGROUND Profilin sensitisation is considered a diagnostic confounding factor in areas where patients are exposed to multiple pollens. The aim of this study is to assess pollen sensitisation profiles in adults and children and to evaluate, by means of component-resolved diagnosis (CRD) and skin prick testing (SPT), which pollens may be considered as risk factors of profilin sensitisation in o...