Abstract
Rationale Allergy to latex takes a special position within type-I-allergies. High-risk-patients are health-care workers, patients with atopic disposition and patients who undergo frequent surgical procedures. Routine in vitro and in vivo tests for latex allergy use no-standardized allergen extracts and therefore vary in sensitivity and specificity. To date, 12 latex proteins have received designation as allergens (Hev 1 to Hev b 12) and 8 of them are cloned as recombinant allergens. Methods We investigated 7 of them (r Hev b 3, r Hev b 5-10) using a novel microarray-based method, the Aachen Atopy Array (AAA). In this test, a computer-assisted qualitative and quantitative analysis of interacting human IgE antibodies with an array of recombinant allergens was performed incubating only 5 μl of patient serum on a solid-phase chip. Results In a large group children and adults with atopy we could show that results of AAA correlate excellent with skin prick tests and established enzyme-immunoassays using inhalant and nutritive allergens. In 7 adult patients we found high and medium levels of specific IgE against recombinant latex allergens, especially r Hev 6, 8 and 5. These findings were confirmed by established enzyme-immunoassays showing similar levels of IgE expression. Conclusion The AAA is a novel and fast immunoassay using recombinant molecules and allows the identification of specific IgE-antibodies to nutritive and inhalant allergens, among latex proteins. This test shows excellent correlation with established diagnostic tools. Additionally, this technique may be used to improve the uncertain diagnostic of latex allergy especially in occupational and environmental medicine.
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