Allergy diagnosis and prediction by common allergenic structures

• Research unit: INNOSUISSE
• Project number: 8803.1;5 LSPP-LS

Short description (English)

Allergy diagnosis and prediction by common allergenic structures

Abstract (English)

Today, in vitro allergy diagnosis is based on allergen extracts. We have shown that more than 90% of all known allergens can be associated with less than 80 structural motifs. Thus, it is intended to develop a new diagnostic tool based on these allergenic structures rather than a great and ever increasing number of individual proteins (allergens) or extracts from organisms with allergenic properties. Such a new tool will consist of an array system (either recombinant proteins or allergenic motifs) and a software predicting potentially cross reacting allergens. This may lead to a change in paradigm as general practitioners may be in the position to perform a better allergy diagnosis and patients will receive more information on their allergic state.