Allergy researchers create halo of hope
Janelle Miles
03jun05
(URL ei toimi enää)
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,154869
29^953,00.html
AUSTRALIAN scientists have developed a new technique that might one day help doctors better identify asthma and allergy triggers in patients.
The novel diagnostic tool, known as the halogen immunoassay, may eventually be used with worldwide standard skin-prick tests to pinpoint the wide range of culprits exacerbating allergic symptoms in different people.
It allows researchers to collect airborne particles in an individual's environment and combine them with serum from the patient's blood, causing a protein reaction that lights up the offending allergens with a halo.
Euan Tovey, of Sydney's Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, originally developed the tool to diagnose an individual's susceptibility to dust mite allergens.
The technique, licensed to the University of Sydney, has since been modified to pick up a patient's response to a range of airborne particles including pollen, cat and dog hair, rat and cockroach allergens.
More recently, PhD student Brett Green, of the Woolcock's allergen unit, used the tool to highlight an individual's sensitivity to fungal fragments. Mr Green used air-sampling pumps to collect fungi from indoor residential environments for 2½ hours a day over 21 days.
"The new technique has provided a way to stain the offending fungi with serum from a person allergic to the fungi, thus identifying which ones they are allergic to," Mr Green said.
"This is a very significant progress as it provides a new way to link exactly what a person is exposed to, allergic to and their symptoms."
Mr Green's data, published recently in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, identified many more types of allergenic fungi than previously thought.
"What we found completely amazed us because it was very different to the traditional way of thinking to what fungi were important to exacerbate allergic diseases," he said.
"The diagnosis of fungal allergy is usually made on the basis of responses to three or four species.
"Our findings suggest a much more diverse range of fungi, including smaller fungal fragments, function as sources of allergen."
Mr Green said traditional skin-prick testing screened for only a few species of fungi that may or may not occur in a patient's individual environment.
"Our technique tests what occurs naturally in someone's environment so you're looking at the full spectrum of what someone's exposed to," he said.
Mr Green's research is considered a breakthrough, given that epidemiologic studies have found fungal exposure is linked to symptoms of seasonal rhinitis, asthma and even death in subjects with fungal allergy.
Once people know what they are allergic to, they can take steps to try to avoid it.
The Woolcock Institute hopes to commercialise the halogen test.
...........................................................
Koko abstrakti:
http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/medline/record/MDLN.15867864
Fungal fragments and undocumented conidia function as new aeroallergen sources.
Green BJ, Sercombe JK, Tovey ER
J Allergy Clin Immunol 2005; 115:1043-8.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: More than 100 genera of fungal conidia are currently recognized as sources of allergens. The contribution of other fungal genera plus airborne fungal hyphae and fragmented conidia to allergic diseases is poorly understood.
OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate the expression of allergens from airborne wild-type fungi using the Halogen immunoassay, which uses allergic serum IgE to immunostain immobilized allergens extracted from individual fungal particles.
*snip*
CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis of wild-type fungi collected indoors presents a new paradigm of natural fungal exposure, which, in addition to commonly recognized species, implicates airborne hyphae, fragmented conidia, and the conidia of a much more diverse range of genera as airborne allergens.
MeSH
Air; Allergens; Alternaria; Antibody Specificity; Environmental Exposure; Fungi; Halogens; Hyphae;
Immunoassay; Immunoglobulin E; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Species Specificity
CAS Registry Number (Substance Name)
0 (Allergens) , 0 (Halogens) , 37341-29-0 (Immunoglobulin E)
Author Address
Department of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Australia. [email protected]
MEDLINE record details
Publication Type:Journal Article
Janelle Miles
03jun05
(URL ei toimi enää)
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,154869
29^953,00.html
AUSTRALIAN scientists have developed a new technique that might one day help doctors better identify asthma and allergy triggers in patients.
The novel diagnostic tool, known as the halogen immunoassay, may eventually be used with worldwide standard skin-prick tests to pinpoint the wide range of culprits exacerbating allergic symptoms in different people.
It allows researchers to collect airborne particles in an individual's environment and combine them with serum from the patient's blood, causing a protein reaction that lights up the offending allergens with a halo.
Euan Tovey, of Sydney's Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, originally developed the tool to diagnose an individual's susceptibility to dust mite allergens.
The technique, licensed to the University of Sydney, has since been modified to pick up a patient's response to a range of airborne particles including pollen, cat and dog hair, rat and cockroach allergens.
More recently, PhD student Brett Green, of the Woolcock's allergen unit, used the tool to highlight an individual's sensitivity to fungal fragments. Mr Green used air-sampling pumps to collect fungi from indoor residential environments for 2½ hours a day over 21 days.
"The new technique has provided a way to stain the offending fungi with serum from a person allergic to the fungi, thus identifying which ones they are allergic to," Mr Green said.
"This is a very significant progress as it provides a new way to link exactly what a person is exposed to, allergic to and their symptoms."
Mr Green's data, published recently in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, identified many more types of allergenic fungi than previously thought.
"What we found completely amazed us because it was very different to the traditional way of thinking to what fungi were important to exacerbate allergic diseases," he said.
"The diagnosis of fungal allergy is usually made on the basis of responses to three or four species.
"Our findings suggest a much more diverse range of fungi, including smaller fungal fragments, function as sources of allergen."
Mr Green said traditional skin-prick testing screened for only a few species of fungi that may or may not occur in a patient's individual environment.
"Our technique tests what occurs naturally in someone's environment so you're looking at the full spectrum of what someone's exposed to," he said.
Mr Green's research is considered a breakthrough, given that epidemiologic studies have found fungal exposure is linked to symptoms of seasonal rhinitis, asthma and even death in subjects with fungal allergy.
Once people know what they are allergic to, they can take steps to try to avoid it.
The Woolcock Institute hopes to commercialise the halogen test.
...........................................................
Koko abstrakti:
http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/medline/record/MDLN.15867864
Fungal fragments and undocumented conidia function as new aeroallergen sources.
Green BJ, Sercombe JK, Tovey ER
J Allergy Clin Immunol 2005; 115:1043-8.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: More than 100 genera of fungal conidia are currently recognized as sources of allergens. The contribution of other fungal genera plus airborne fungal hyphae and fragmented conidia to allergic diseases is poorly understood.
OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate the expression of allergens from airborne wild-type fungi using the Halogen immunoassay, which uses allergic serum IgE to immunostain immobilized allergens extracted from individual fungal particles.
*snip*
CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis of wild-type fungi collected indoors presents a new paradigm of natural fungal exposure, which, in addition to commonly recognized species, implicates airborne hyphae, fragmented conidia, and the conidia of a much more diverse range of genera as airborne allergens.
MeSH
Air; Allergens; Alternaria; Antibody Specificity; Environmental Exposure; Fungi; Halogens; Hyphae;
Immunoassay; Immunoglobulin E; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Species Specificity
CAS Registry Number (Substance Name)
0 (Allergens) , 0 (Halogens) , 37341-29-0 (Immunoglobulin E)
Author Address
Department of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Australia. [email protected]
MEDLINE record details
Publication Type:Journal Article
Vastaukset 2
Vanhimmat
ymmärsin asian niin, että olisi kyse normaalisti ulkoilmassa olevista homeitiöistä. Ei siis kosteusvauriomikrobeista.
Kyse on siis tyypin I allergiasta eli astmasta. Kosteusvauriomikrobit aihettavat puolestaan sairauksia III ja IV tyypin mekanismilla.
Pekka Nikkola
Abstraktista ei paljon selviä, mutta näytteet on otettu sisätiloista. Tässä kyse henkilön asuinympäristössä esiintyvistä homeista ja mahd. allergiasta. Oletettavasti ei kosteusvauriorakennuksesta, koska sitä ei mainita artikkelissa, eikä abstraktissa.
Itse en ole alan 'asiantuntija', hallitsen paremmin hajustekemikaalit, mutta moni homeesta sairastunut on myös [hajuste]kemikaaliyliherkkä/-intolerantti, siksi tämäkin puoli kiinnostaa.
* * *
Mr Green said traditional skin-prick testing screened for only a few species of fungi that may or may not occur in a patient's individual environment.
"Our technique tests what occurs naturally in someone's environment so you're looking at the full spectrum of what someone's exposed to," he said.
* * *
CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis of wild-type fungi collected indoors presents a new paradigm of natural fungal exposure