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Allergen-Associated Immunomodulators: Modifying Allergy Outcome

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Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis Aims and scope

Abstract

The prevalence of allergies is increasing since mid twentieth century; however the underlying causes of this increase are not fully clear. Understanding the mechanism by which a harmless protein becomes an allergen provides us with the basis to prevent and treat these diseases. Although most studies on allergen immunogenicity have traditionally focused on structural properties of the proteins, it is increasingly clear that allergenicity cannot be determined only based on structural features of the allergenic proteins. In fact, allergens do not encounter human facings as isolated molecules but contained in complex mixtures of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids, such as pollen grains or foods. As a result, attention has lately been directed to examine whether allergen-associated molecules exhibit immune-regulatory properties. The present review aims to illustrate some examples of how non-protein molecules accompanying the allergen can modulate allergic responses.

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Abbreviations

AHR:

Airway hyper-responsiveness

APC:

Antigen-presenting cell

BMDCs:

Bone marrow-derived dendritic cells

CE:

Combinatorial extension

CD:

Cluster of differentiation

DC:

Dendritic cell

FATCAT:

Flexible structure alignment by chaining aligned fragment pairs

GlcNAc:

N-Acetylglucosamine

Ig:

Immunoglobulin

IL:

Interleukin

IMP:

Immunomodulatory protein

LPS:

Lipopolysaccharide

MR:

Mannose receptor

nsLTP:

Non-specific lipid transfer protein

ODN:

Oligodeoxynucleotide

OVA:

Ovalbumin

PALMs:

Pollen-associated lipid mediators

PAMPs:

Pathogen-associated molecular patterns

PR:

Pathogenesis-related

Th:

T helper type

TLR:

Toll-like receptor

TM:

Template modeling

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Gómez-Casado, C., Díaz-Perales, A. Allergen-Associated Immunomodulators: Modifying Allergy Outcome. Arch. Immunol. Ther. Exp. 64, 339–347 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-016-0401-2

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