IMR Press / FBL / Volume 8 / Issue 6 / DOI: 10.2741/982

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article

Molecular biology of Aspergillus allergens

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1 Allergy-Immunology Division, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2003, 8(6), 128–139; https://doi.org/10.2741/982
Published: 1 January 2003
Abstract

Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA) is a severe respiratory disease caused by the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus (Af). It occurs as secondary complication mostly in patients with atopy and cystic fibrosis. The standardized and well-characterized allergens are essential for the immunodiagnosis of ABPA as well as for understanding the pathophysiology of the disease. Molecular cloning was resorted to obtain purified Af allergens for such studies. Currently, twenty-two recombinant Af allergens have been identified and characterized and several of these can be used as standardized allergens in in vitro and in vivo diagnosis of ABPA. The knowledge of primary, secondary, and tertiary structures of these allergens may facilitate the identification of immunodominant T and B cell epitopes and may be used to unravel the structure function relationship of these allergens. Such findings may open up novel avenues in the immune modulatory therapy and other effective intervention of the disease.

Keywords
ABPA
Recombinant allergens
Epitopes
Structure of allergens
Specific Immunotherapy
Review
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