Propiedades biológicas de los alérgenos inhalatorios y su relación con la respuesta inmunitaria

IgE-binding studies show that many of the common causes of inhalant allergy such as grass, olive, ragweed and birch pollen, house dust mites and some fungi have one or a few principal allergens that can account for most of the allergic response. The IgE binding to allergens from other sources can be more evenly spread amongst different proteins or, as indicated in cat allergy, varies with clinical presentation. The biological properties of nearly all of the principal allergens can now be predicted from the knowledge of their structures and they point to likely interactions with the innate immune system, as well as possible interactions with hormonal regulators of immunity. As found for pectate lyases and the Ole e1-like proteins, biologically similar proteins can be principal allergens for many species while the Dermatophagoides spp. and Blomia tropicalis allergens show that allergens with the same biological properties reveal interspecies variation in allergen hierarchy. These properties show that the interactions of allergens with innate immunity and immuno-regulators will be different for different allergens, and this concurs with the evidence that immune responses to allergens from the same source are regulated independently, as are responses to co-presented allergenic and non-allergenic proteins.