1- Serviço de Imunoalergologia, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, EPE, Lisboa
- European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Congress 2014 (Poster)
Introduction
Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) and profilins are the most important panallergens in pollen and plant food allergic patients. LTPs are food allergens that usually induce systemic symptoms; Profilins are responsible for the pollen–fruit syndrome, in which fruit-allergic patients cosensitized to pollens experience oral symptoms.
Methods
A study was conducted in order to find the frequence of symptomatic/asymptomatic sensitization to LTP (Pru p3) and profilin (Pho d2) in patients with positive skin prick tests (SPT) to pollens/fruits/vegetables (PFV). During 4 months, all the patients who had positive SPT to PFV performed SPT to LTP and profilin and filled a questionnaire to evaluate food allergy (FA).
Results
We evaluated 227 patients, mean age 21.7 years (50.7% female). We found that 32 had sensitization to LTP (FA in 19), 19 to profilin (1 with FA) and 3 were sensitized both to LTP and profilin (none with FA). Of the 218 patients with positive SPT to pollens, 27 were positive to LTP (12.4%) and 18 (8.3%) to profilin. Of the 27 patients with positive SPT to pollens and LTP, 14 had FA. Among the 18 patients with positive SPT to pollens and profilin, 1 had FA. Of the patients who presented positive fruit SPT (29), 18 (62,1%) were positive to LTP and 2 to profilin (6,9%). All patients with positive SPT to fruits and LTP had FA.
Discussion
In this sample, there is a high prevalence of sensitization to pollens but the number of patients sensitized to profilin is lower than expected and this sensitization is not associated with the presence of allergy to fruits/vegetables (FV). The data shows that sensitization to LTP is frequent in patients sensitized to FV and in these cases clinical manifestations are frequent. On the contrary, when there is only pollen sensitization, the percentage of LTP sensitization is lower. he cosensitization to pollens and FV does not seem to be associated with the severity of clinical manifestations of FA in patients where food allergy exists.
Palavras Chave: LTP and Profilin sensitization; food allergy