Aspects of Hypersensitivity to Cephalosporins

Despite chemical similarity between cephalosporins and penicillins, marked differences exist in chemical reactivity and behavior. It would be ill advised to draw analogies not based on experimental data. 

There is also a brief report on the development of delayed hypersensitivity reactions in guinea pigs to a cephalosporin-albumin conjugate (Lerner and Stan-DER 1973). Little work has been reported on the elicitation of contact reactions in guinea pigs by cephalothin. Neither de novo sensitization nor cross-reactivity in animals sensitized by benzylpenicillin were achieved by the Beecham s group (Batchelor et al. 1966 Dewdney 1977), while weak and irregular sensitization was reported by Schneierson et al. (1964). 

In man, allergic reactions have been in reported in patients with no prior history of penicillin allergy, leading to the assumption that cephalosporins may be immunogenic by themselves (Kaplan and Weinstein 1967 Abraham et al. 1968 a, b Molthan 1969 Saleh and Tischler 1974). 

Cross-reactivities between antibodies to cephalosporins and penicillins have been observed in experimental animals (Brandriss et al. 1965 Batchelor et al. 1966 Gralnick and McGinnis 1967 Tadokoro et al. 1976) and in man (Abraham et al. 1968 b Grieco 1967 Stemberger et al. 1971 Delafuente et al. 1979). Among 701 patients with a history of penicillin allergy, 57 (8.1%) experienced an 

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