„Allergen-hybrids – next generation vaccines for Fagales pollen immunotherapy“
Ulrike Pichler PhD, Michael Hauser PhD, Heidi Hofer MSc, Martin Himly PhD, Elisabeth Hoflehner PhD, Markus Steiner MSc, Sonja Mutschlechner PhD, Karin Hufnagl PhD, Christof Ebner MD, Adriano Mari, Peter Briza PhD, Barbara Bohle PhD, Ursula Wiedermann MD, Fatima Ferreira PhD, Michael Wallner PhD

Abstract:
Immunotherapy of Fagales pollen multi-sensitized patients is still mainly performed with birch pollen extracts, thus limiting the success of this intervention is birch free areas. To address this problem, we designed two different hybrid proteins based on overlapping T cell epitopes from each parental allergen. Both molecules showed high immunogenicity and decreased IgE binding. Moreover, the proteins were able to prevent the onset of allergic sensitization in a prophylactic mouse model. The results emphasize their application for the treatment of Fagales multi-sensitization.

The open access article can be found  here

Reviewed by Hans Brandstetter