Identifying Proteins and Chemicals that Cause or Exacerbate Allergic Disease

2 Identifying Proteins and Chemicals that Cause or Exacerbate Allergic Disease 

Certain proteins and low-molecular-weight ( 3000) compounds have the potential to cause allergic sensitization. Responses to subsequent inhalation exposure include pulmonary inflammation, increased mucus secretion, specific bronchial hyperreactivity to the offending allergen, and nonspecific bronchial hyperresponsiveness to challenge with an agonist such as methacholine. These symptoms are 

Because low-molecular-weight chemicals are haptens and must react with a host protein in order to be allergenic, efforts have also been made to identify chemicals with potential for allergenicity based on the probability that a given chemical structure will react with protein. Two classes of compounds, diisocyanates and acid anhydrides, fit this description and some, but not all, chemicals in these two groups have been identified as respiratory allergens following occupational exposure of humans and/or experimental exposure of laboratory animals. 

Recently, a more economical, less subjective test for contact hypersensitivity has been developed using mice. This test, the local lymph node assay (LLNA), assesses the proliferative response of lymphocytes in the draining lymph node following appli- 

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