ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To explore the use of β-lactoglobulin polymerized using microbial transglutaminase and heating to identify whether protein polymerization could reduce in vivo allergenicity and maintain in vitro and ex vivo immunoreactivity for use in tolerance-induction protocols. METHODS: Based on previous protocols applied in mice and children, we performed in vivo challenges (using a skin prick test) with native and polymerized β-lactoglobulin in adult patients with an IgE-mediated allergy to plactoglobulin. In vitro humoral immunoreactivity was analyzed using immunoblotting. Cell-mediated immunoreactivity was analyzed using ex vivo challenges with native and polymerized β-lactoglobulin and monitored by leukocyte adherence inhibition tests. RESULTS: The skin tests demonstrated that there was a significant reduction in immediate cutaneous reactivity after polymerization. Polymerization did not decrease the immunoblotting detection of s-IgE specific to β-lactoglobulin. Cell-mediated immunoreactivity, as assessed by ex vivo challenges and leukocyte adherence inhibition tests, did not exhibit significant differences between leukocytes challenged with native versus polymerized β-lactoglobulin. CONCLUSIONS: The polymerization of β-lactoglobulin decreased in vivo allergenicity and did not decrease in vitro humoral or ex vivo cell-mediated immunoreactivity. Therefore, we conclude that inducing polymerization using transglutaminase represents a promising technique to produce suitable molecules for the purpose of designing oral/ sublingual tolerance induction protocols for the treatment of allergies.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young Adult , Cysteine/immunology , Immune Tolerance/immunology , Lactoglobulins/immunology , Milk Hypersensitivity/immunology , Transglutaminases/immunology , Allergens/immunology , Case-Control Studies , Cysteine/chemistry , Heating , Immunoblotting , Immunoglobulin E/blood , Leukocyte Adherence Inhibition Test , Milk Hypersensitivity/prevention & control , Polymerization , Skin Tests , Statistics, Nonparametric , Transglutaminases/chemistryABSTRACT
No presente estudo, realizou-se uma tentativa de induçäo de resistência a 3 drogas esquistossomicidas em uma cepa brasileira de S. mansoni, segundo o esquema de induçäo de resistência tipo II preconizado por Jansma et al. em 1977. Houve insucesso nas 3 tentativas realizadas. A geraçäo parental tratada com a droga durante o estágio imaturo do verme mostrou-se menos suscetível aos quimioterápicos do que as geraçöes F1 e F2 do verme. Uma hipótese é levantada para a explicaçäo do fato