PLoS ONE (Jan 2012)

Graph based study of allergen cross-reactivity of plant lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) using microarray in a multicenter study.

  • Arantxa Palacín,
  • Cristina Gómez-Casado,
  • Luis A Rivas,
  • Jacobo Aguirre,
  • Leticia Tordesillas,
  • Joan Bartra,
  • Carlos Blanco,
  • Teresa Carrillo,
  • Javier Cuesta-Herranz,
  • Consolación de Frutos,
  • Genoveva García Alvarez-Eire,
  • Francisco J Fernández,
  • Pedro Gamboa,
  • Rosa Muñoz,
  • Rosa Sánchez-Monge,
  • Sofía Sirvent,
  • María J Torres,
  • Susana Varela-Losada,
  • Rosalía Rodríguez,
  • Victor Parro,
  • Miguel Blanca,
  • Gabriel Salcedo,
  • Araceli Díaz-Perales

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050799
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 12
p. e50799

Abstract

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The study of cross-reactivity in allergy is key to both understanding. the allergic response of many patients and providing them with a rational treatment In the present study, protein microarrays and a co-sensitization graph approach were used in conjunction with an allergen microarray immunoassay. This enabled us to include a wide number of proteins and a large number of patients, and to study sensitization profiles among members of the LTP family. Fourteen LTPs from the most frequent plant food-induced allergies in the geographical area studied were printed into a microarray specifically designed for this research. 212 patients with fruit allergy and 117 food-tolerant pollen allergic subjects were recruited from seven regions of Spain with different pollen profiles, and their sera were tested with allergen microarray. This approach has proven itself to be a good tool to study cross-reactivity between members of LTP family, and could become a useful strategy to analyze other families of allergens.