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CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association... Sep 2015
Topics: Anaphylaxis; Arthropod Venoms; Humans; Insect Bites and Stings
PubMed: 26054610
DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.141264 -
Toxicon : Official Journal of the... 1996A review is presented of our ongoing research projects on the protein components of the saliva of human body lice and of the non-paralyzing venom of wasps in the... (Review)
Review
A review is presented of our ongoing research projects on the protein components of the saliva of human body lice and of the non-paralyzing venom of wasps in the subfamily Cheloninae. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacryamide gel electrophoretic analysis of lice salivary gland proteins showed a predominance of high and intermediate mol. wt proteins. Immunoblotting with a low titer polyclonal antiserum to lice salivary proteins indicated that some, but not all, of the predominant high mol. wt salivary gland proteins are injected into the host during feeding. The venom of a Chelonus sp. wasp contains a chitinase, and a 33,000 mol. wt protein with a primary structure composed mostly of a series of 12 tandem repeats of a 14-residue sequence. The N-terminus of this protein and its homologs in a related species of Ascogaster share a conserved adjacent pair of acidic residues. Epitope mapping/immunoprecipitation experiments now in progress will provide information on which linear motifs are on the surface of the protein, and will thereby provide information on the tertiary structure of the protein.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Venoms; Humans; Moths; Phthiraptera; Salivary Proteins and Peptides; Toxins, Biological; Wasp Venoms; Wasps
PubMed: 9027999
DOI: 10.1016/s0041-0101(96)00091-8 -
Current Allergy and Asthma Reports Jul 2014Venom immunotherapy (VIT) is the most effective form of specific immunotherapy to date. Hitherto, several relevant queries remain unanswered, namely optimal doses,... (Review)
Review
Venom immunotherapy (VIT) is the most effective form of specific immunotherapy to date. Hitherto, several relevant queries remain unanswered, namely optimal doses, duration, and means of assessment. Important progress has been lately made in terms of diagnosis by means of component-resolved diagnosis. Moreover, basophil activation test results in patients with negative serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) and skin prick test confer this technique a promising future, although these outcomes shall be considered with caution. This review aims to unravel the important advances made on diagnosis, management, and prognosis and also focuses on several undetermined aspects of VIT.
Topics: Anaphylaxis; Arthropod Venoms; Humans; Immunoglobulin E; Immunotherapy; Insect Bites and Stings; Mastocytosis; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Risk Factors; Skin Tests
PubMed: 24934908
DOI: 10.1007/s11882-014-0449-1 -
Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical... Aug 2003This paper will review new indications for the administration of rapid or ultrarush venom immunotherapy and the advantages of pretreatment with antihistamines. (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
This paper will review new indications for the administration of rapid or ultrarush venom immunotherapy and the advantages of pretreatment with antihistamines.
RECENT FINDINGS
Rapid and ultrarush venom immunotherapy protocols have been successfully employed to achieve protective maintenance venom doses rapidly. These have been associated with systemic reactor rates as low as 5-7%. Recently, rapid venom immunotherapy protocols have been successfully employed to reach ultra-high maintenance doses for patients not previously protected with standard maintenance doses (i.e. 100 micro g). There is also evidence that pretreatment with antihistamines before venom injections during rapid venom immunotherapy may reduce the numbers and severity of injection-related systemic reactions, as well as improve long-term outcomes in preventing subsequent resting systemic reactions in the field.
SUMMARY
Pretreatment with antihistamines should be considered in patients receiving rapid or ultrarush venom injections. Ultrarush or rapid immunotherapy regimens compare favorably with conventional modified rush protocols in terms of side-effects, and may be considered in order to achieve higher but effective maintenance venom doses in those rare patients who are treatment failures.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Venoms; Desensitization, Immunologic; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Histamine H1 Antagonists; Humans; Hymenoptera; Hypersensitivity, Immediate; Immunization, Passive; Premedication
PubMed: 12865774
DOI: 10.1097/00130832-200308000-00010 -
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical... Mar 2022
Topics: Arthropod Venoms; Humans; Hypersensitivity
PubMed: 35272787
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaip.2021.12.028 -
Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology Apr 2006Hymenoptera venoms each contain a variety of protein allergens. The major components have all been characterized, and most of the amino acid sequences are known. This... (Review)
Review
Hymenoptera venoms each contain a variety of protein allergens. The major components have all been characterized, and most of the amino acid sequences are known. This article concentrates on the use of contemporary techniques including cloning, mass spectrometry and genomics in the characterization of venom allergens, and newer separation techniques for protein isolation. Examples of the use of these techniques with venom proteins are presented.
Topics: Allergens; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Ant Venoms; Arthropod Venoms; Base Sequence; Bee Venoms; Humans; Hymenoptera; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny; Terminology as Topic; Wasp Venoms
PubMed: 16645223
DOI: 10.1385/criai:30:2:109 -
Advances in Experimental Medicine and... 1996
Review
Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Arthropod Venoms; Hymenoptera; Molecular Sequence Data; Proteins; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Analysis
PubMed: 8726055
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4613-0361-9_10 -
Cells Jun 2021venom allergy is one of the most severe allergic diseases, with a considerable prevalence of anaphylactic reaction, making it potentially lethal. In this review, we... (Review)
Review
venom allergy is one of the most severe allergic diseases, with a considerable prevalence of anaphylactic reaction, making it potentially lethal. In this review, we provide an overview of the current knowledge and recent findings in understanding induced immune mechanisms during different phases of venom immunotherapy. We focus on protection mechanisms that occur early, during the build-up phase, and on the immune tolerance, which occurs later, during and after venom immunotherapy. The short-term protection seems to be established by the early desensitization of mast cells and basophils, which plays a crucial role in preventing anaphylaxis during the build-up phase of treatment. The early generation of blocking IgG antibodies seems to be one of the main reasons for the lower activation of effector cells. Long-term tolerance is reached after at least three years of venom immunotherapy. A decrease in basophil responsiveness correlates with tolerated sting challenge. Furthermore, the persistent decline in IgE levels and, by monitoring the cytokine profiles, a shift from a Th2 to Th1 immune response, can be observed. In addition, the generation of regulatory T and B cells has proven to be essential for inducing allergen tolerance. Most studies on the mechanisms and effectiveness data have been obtained during venom immunotherapy (VIT). Despite the high success rate of VIT, allergen tolerance may not persist for a prolonged time. There is not much known about immune mechanisms that assure long-term tolerance post-therapy.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Venoms; Desensitization, Immunologic; Humans; Immune Tolerance; Models, Biological; Models, Immunological; Time Factors
PubMed: 34206562
DOI: 10.3390/cells10071575 -
Toxins Jul 2015Along with food and drug allergic reactions, a Hymenoptera insect Sting (Apoidea, Vespidae, Formicidae) is one of the most common causes of anaphylaxis worldwide.... (Review)
Review
Along with food and drug allergic reactions, a Hymenoptera insect Sting (Apoidea, Vespidae, Formicidae) is one of the most common causes of anaphylaxis worldwide. Diagnoses of Hymenoptera venom allergy (HVA) and specific immunotherapy (SIT) have been based on the use of crude venom extracts. However, the incidence of cross-reactivity and low levels of sensibility during diagnosis, as well as the occurrence of nonspecific sensitization and undesired side effects during SIT, encourage the search for novel allergenic materials. Recombinant allergens are an interesting approach to improve allergy diagnosis and SIT because they circumvent major problems associated with the use of crude venom. Production of recombinant allergens depends on the profound molecular characterization of the natural counterpart by combining some "omics" approaches with high-throughput screening techniques and the selection of an appropriate system for heterologous expression. To date, several clinically relevant allergens and novel venom toxins have been identified, cloned and characterized, enabling a better understanding of the whole allergenic and envenoming processes. Here, we review recent findings on identification, molecular characterization and recombinant expression of Hymenoptera venom allergens and on the evaluation of these heterologous proteins as valuable tools for tackling remaining pitfalls on HVA diagnosis and immunotherapy.
Topics: Allergens; Animals; Arthropod Venoms; Cloning, Molecular; Desensitization, Immunologic; Humans; Hymenoptera; Hypersensitivity; Proteome; Recombinant Proteins; Transcriptome
PubMed: 26184309
DOI: 10.3390/toxins7072551 -
Current Biology : CB Aug 2022Venomous animals utilize venom glands to secrete and store powerful toxins for intraspecific and/or interspecific antagonistic interactions, implying that...
Venomous animals utilize venom glands to secrete and store powerful toxins for intraspecific and/or interspecific antagonistic interactions, implying that tissue-specific resistance is essential for venom glands to anatomically separate toxins from other tissues. Here, we show the mechanism of tissue-specific resistance in centipedes (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans), where the splice variant of the receptor repels its own toxin. Unlike the well-known resistance mechanism by mutation in a given exon, we found that the KCNQ1 channel is highly expressed in the venom gland as a unique splice variant in which the pore domain and transmembrane domain six, partially encoded by exon 6 (rather than 7 as found in other tissues), contain eleven mutated residues. Such a splice variant is sufficient to gain resistance to SsTx (a lethal toxin for giant prey capture) in the venom gland due to a partially buried binding site. Therefore, the tissue-specific KCNQ1 modification confers resistance to the toxins, establishing a safe zone in the venom-storing/secreting environment.
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Venoms; Arthropods; Chilopoda; KCNQ1 Potassium Channel; Organ Specificity
PubMed: 35863353
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.074