Assessment of Environmental Cockroach Allergen Exposure

Abstract

In the past, cockroach allergen exposure assessment mainly focused on settled dust in homes in low-income urban cities in the United States. That choice was not wrong; without measureable levels of cockroach allergen, it is difficult to show associations with any home characteristics much less with health outcomes (e.g., allergy, asthma). However, recent studies in other suburban areas, schools, and other countries have elucidated the importance of cockroach allergen in these environments too. In addition, characterizing the underlying factors that give rise to cockroach allergen exposure (or protect against it) can lead to more targeted public health interventions. This review discusses different approaches to sampling indoor environments, interprets recent asthma and allergy studies, compares cockroach allergen levels from past studies with those of recent studies, and describes strategies to decrease exposures.

Surveillance of Social and Geographic Inequalities in Housing-Related Issues: The Case of the Eastern Townships, Quebec (Canada)

“…Although some authors have already studied associations between social position and specific features of the physical environment including housing-related issues [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], very few have thoroughly examined their uneven distribution within populations [ 7 ]. The rare studies that have done so were from European countries.…”

Measurement of German cockroach allergens and their isoforms in allergen extracts with mass spectrometry

“…Dust samples from 24 households (16 confirmed cockroach‐infested and 8 with no detectable Bla g 1 using ELISA) were obtained, extracted and subjected to LC‐MRM/MS. Consistent with previous findings, 19‐22 highest levels of GCr allergens are found in kitchens, but allergens are also detected in bed and bedroom samples (Figure 1). The mean allergen profile in the environmental samples is compared with the mean profiles from commercial extracts in Table 3.…”

Bedroom Allergen Exposure Beyond House Dust Mites

“…Cockroach allergen exposure, a long-recognized risk factor in respiratory health [103], has generally been demonstrated to be greatest in the kitchen within home environments [104, 105]; however, numerous studies have also investigated the bedroom as another important source of cockroach allergen exposure [106]. …”

“…The molecular structures of Bla g 1 and Per a 1 consist of tandem repeats of approximately 100 amino acids, whereas Bla g 2 is a globular protein belonging to the family of aspartic proteases [28, 110, 111]. Bla g 1 and Bla g 2 in particular, once thought to be carried mainly on larger particles of greater than 10 μm [53•, 107–109]and thus primarily found in settled dust, have more recently been studied in air sampling with the conclusion that they also exist on smaller particles and are often airborne, so that kitchen and bedroom exposures are actually highly correlated [112] – a particularly important finding from an exposure assessment perspective [106]. …”