A computational approach to the description of individual immune responses

Abstract

Detailed evaluation of the IgE and IgG-subclass immune response during immunotherapy can now be performed by crossed radio immunoelectrophoresis (CRIE). Some new concepts are introduced facilitating the handling of the vast amount of data obtained by quantitating the immune response. These concepts are "distance" between antibody responses and "immune response width". The 20 patients included in this study were pollen-allergic patients who underwent specific immunotherapy in a 3-year prospective study. It was found that the immune response during immunotherapy was restricted to IgG1 and IgG4 antibodies. The semi-quantitative CRIE analysis correlated with the RAST analysis for the IgE samples before start of immunotherapy, for the IgG1 samples at week 12, and for all the IgG4 samples. During immunotherapy the number of IgG1 antibodies directed to the different antigens increased towards 11 antigens and decreased towards six. For the IgG4 antibodies the number of reactions increased towards 15 antigens and decreased towards four. The increase is generally paralleled by an increase in quantitative immune response as well. For some of the antigens a rise in the IgE antibodies is contrasted by a fall in the IgG4 antibody response, and for other antigens the opposite was true, indicating a regulatory mechanism between the IgE and the IgG4 synthesis. The IgE immune response to a number of antigens, including the major allergens before the start of immunotherapy, was quantitatively diminished during the period of immunotherapy when IgG1 was present early (week 12) in the period, and for other antigens there was a rise in IgE without an early IgG1 antibody response. This suggests that IgG1 can have a regulating influence on the IgE synthesis. Finally, we have found that IgE antibodies with specificities not present in the samples taken before immunotherapy were formed during immunotherapy. These new IgE antibodies do not, however, seem to impair the outcome of treatment.

Isotypic Analysis of Grass-Pollen-Specific Immunoglobulins in Human Plasma

“…Thus, for both plasma groups, we were able to measure IgG2 and IgG3 antibodies. This is in contrast to the observations of other investigators who have studied the humoral immune re sponse to allergens and reported IgGl and IgG4 restric tion [1,2,8,11,13]. Our observations emphasizes the im portance of analyzing sera for allergen-specific IgG anti bodies across all 4 IgG subclasses rather than just testing for IgGl and IgG4 antibodies.…”

“…This was ac complished using the selected method reported by Adkinson et al [13,17,18] who showed that the average equilib rium constant (K0) for human anti-allergen antibodies varied over a narrow range from among the individuals, thus indicating remarkable antibody homogeneity. Hence, they showed that a reference serum that had been cali brated in mass/volume units of antibody could be used to construct a standard curve from which unknown antibody results could be quantitatively interpolated.…”

The natural history of Apis‐specific IgG and IgG4 in beekeepers

“…In patients not subjected to immunotherapy, the number of studies is limited; the most common one being related to food allergens. Einally, in recent years there has been some investigation into the possible existence of regulatory mechanisms common to the synthesis of IgE and subclasses of IgG [6][7][8]. However, in all of them it has been observed that the response to Correspondence: Dr Jose Carlos Garcia Robaina, Department of Allergy, Hospital Universitario Ntra.…”

Isotypic Analysis of Grass Pollen-Specific Immunoglobulins in Human Plasma

“…IgE anti bodies have also been reported in primary responses to se lected allergens and parasitic antigens [1], Secondary ex posure to the same antigens induces an observable 'switch' to IgG and IgA antibodies, many of which exhibit higher affinities and new specificities for antigenic epitopes not previously recognized during primary responses. Either long-term natural exposure or the repetitive injection of an allergen as part of a hyposensitization regimen induce an immune response which is highly represented by either IgG4 antibodies alone [2][3][4][5][6][7] or IgG4 in tandem with IgGl antibodies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14], IgGl antibody responses appear to be generated first, while a prolonged immunization with the antigen leads to a shift toward IgG4 antibody dominance [2-4. 8, 15].…”