Allergy in the 21st Century: New Answers to Old Questions
23rd Symposium of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum
May 18-23, 2000, Hakone, Japan
Editors: Takeru Ishikawa, Kumamoto; Terumasa Miyamoto, Tokyo; Hirokazu Okudaira, Tokyo; Hisao Tomioka, Chiba; Rudolf Valenta, Vienna; Dietrich Kraft, Vienna

Poster Presentation: Molecular Aspects of Allergens

Induction of Blocking Antibodies with T Cell Epitope-Containing Hypoallergenic Recombinant Bet v 1 Fragments
Susanne Vrtala^a, Cezmi A. Akdis^b, Ferah Budak^b, Mübeccel Akdis^b, Kurt Blaser^b, Dietrich Kraft^a, Rudolf Valenta<sup>a

a</sup>Department of Pathophysiology, AKH, University of Vienna, Austria;
^bSwiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, Davos, Switzerland

Address of Corresponding Author

Int Arch Allergy Immunol 2001;124:107-108 (DOI: 10.1159/000053684)

  Key Words

• Birch pollen allergy
• Bet v 1
• Immunotherapy
• Recombinant hypoallergenic derivatives
• Blocking antibodies

  Abstract

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Bet v 1, the major birch pollen allergen, represents one of the most prominent allergens. It is recognized by serum IgE from more than 95% of birch pollen-allergic patients and 60% of these patients react exclusively with this allergen [1, 2]. Bet v 1 contains conformational IgE epitopes and shares epitopes with major allergens from trees and plant-derived food [3]. We produced by genetic engineering two rBet v 1 fragments, comprising amino acids (aa) 1-74 and aa 75-160 of complete Bet v 1, which due to a loss of their three-dimensional conformation, failed to bind IgE antibodies from allergic patients and had more than 100-fold reduced allergenic activity in histamine release assays and skin tests [4, 5, 6, 7]. Here we show that the recombinant Bet v 1 fragments induced proliferation of PBMC from birch pollen-allergic patients comparable to the rBet v 1 wild type, indicating that both fragments contain most of the Bet v 1-specific T cell epitopes.

Copyright © 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Correspondence to: Dr. Rudolf Valenta
Molecular Immunopathology Group
Department of Pathophysiology, AKH, University of Vienna
Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna (Austria)
Tel. +43 1 40400 5108, Fax +43 1 40400 5130, E-Mail rudolf.valenta@akh-wien.ac.at

  Article Information

Number of Print Pages : 2
Number of Figures : 1, Number of Tables : 0, Number of References : 8