The blocking activity of birch pollen-specific immunotherapy-induced IgG4 is not qualitatively superior to that of other IgG subclasses
Allergen-specific IgG antibodies induced by specific immunotherapy (SIT) interfere with the allergen–IgE interaction, and act as blocking antibodies in vitro. It has been hypothesised that IgG4, as opposed to other IgG subclasses, is particularly important in this function, which may play a role for...
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Published in | Molecular immunology Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 471 - 478 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Elsevier Ltd
01.07.2004
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Allergen-specific IgG antibodies induced by specific immunotherapy (SIT) interfere with the allergen–IgE interaction, and act as blocking antibodies in vitro. It has been hypothesised that IgG4, as opposed to other IgG subclasses, is particularly important in this function, which may play a role for the clinical efficacy of SIT.
In this study, fractionated serum samples from 14 SIT-treated birch pollen allergic individuals enabled determination of the inhibitory capacity of IgG4 alone versus non-IgG4 IgG. Allergen-binding activities of IgG and the IgG-mediated inhibition of allergen binding to autologous IgE were detected using
125I-labelled rBet v 1.2801, a recombinant variant of the major allergen of
Betula verrucosa pollen.
Results show that IgG4-depletion resulted in equivalent reductions in binding and blocking activities. In contrast, a significant but less than two-fold higher relative blocking activity was found in the purified IgG4 fraction. There was no significant difference in the binding avidities (1/
K
d) measured in the two IgG fractions.
Thus, it appears that SIT-induced specific IgG4 contributes to the IgG blocking of allergen binding to IgE in a simple quantitative manner and not by a particular intrinsic blocking activity. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0161-5890 1872-9142 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.molimm.2004.04.018 |