Banerjee Banani, Kurup Viswanath P
Allergy-Immunology Division, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
Front Biosci. 2003 Jan 1;8:s128-39. doi: 10.2741/982.
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.
变应性支气管肺曲霉病（ABPA）是一种由烟曲霉（Af）引起的严重呼吸系统疾病。它主要作为继发性并发症发生于特应性和囊性纤维化患者中。标准化且特征明确的变应原对于ABPA的免疫诊断以及理解该疾病的病理生理学至关重要。为了进行此类研究，采用分子克隆方法来获得纯化的Af变应原。目前，已鉴定和表征了22种重组Af变应原，其中几种可作为标准化变应原用于ABPA的体外和体内诊断。了解这些变应原的一级、二级和三级结构可能有助于鉴定免疫显性T和B细胞表位，并可用于阐明这些变应原的结构功能关系。这些发现可能为该疾病的免疫调节治疗和其他有效干预开辟新途径。
