Cross‐reactive and species‐specific immunoglobulin E epitopes of plant profilins: an experimental and structure‐based analysis

Abstract

The large extent of cross-reactivity among plant profilins justifies using a single profilin for diagnosis. However, the fine specificity of IgE directed to variable epitopes may influence the clinical manifestation of profilin sensitization.

Sensitization to profilin in the Central region of Portugal

“…These findings agree with the current understanding of profilin as a plant panallergen (Valenta et al, 1992;Radauer et al, 2006;Ebner et al, 1995).…”

“…This slightly lower percentage might be due to differences in the fine specificity of IgE directed to variable epitopes of profilin (Radauer et al, 2006) in our population. This might lead to deficient recognition of profilin from other pollens, compared with patients from other countries.…”

“…The large extent of cross-reactivity among plant profilins justifies using a single profilin for diagnosis. However, the fine specificity of IgE directed to variable epitopes may influence the clinical manifestation of profilin sensitization (Radauer et al, 2006). Natural profilin seems to be better for diagnosis than its recombinant counterpart both in vitro and in vivo, possibly because of improper folding of the recombinant molecule, as shown for rBet v 2 and nBet v 2 (van Ree et al, 1999;Pauli et al, 1996;Elfman et al, 1997;Wensing et al, 2002).…”

“…This can be explained by sensitization to panallergens present in pollens, namely profilins and calcium-binding proteins (Valenta et al, 1991(Valenta et al, , 1992(Valenta et al, , 1998Radauer et al, 2006;Ebner et al, 1995).…”

“…They are essential in all organisms since they regulate the dynamics of actin polymerization, for in vivo motility, and function as hubs that control a complex network of molecular interactions (Witke, 2004). The plant derived class of profilins show a high sequence homology (50 to 80%) (Radauer et al, 2006;Thorn et al, 1997). Profilin was first reported as a minor allergen in birch pollen (Valenta et al, 1991).…”