Dataset Information

Lack of allergy to timothy grass pollen is not a passive phenomenon but associated with the allergen-specific modulation of immune reactivity.

ABSTRACT: Timothy grass (TG) pollen is a common seasonal airborne allergen associated with symptoms ranging from mild rhinitis to severe asthma.The aim of this study was to characterize changes in TG-specific T cell responses as a function of seasonality.Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from allergic individuals and non-allergic controls, either during the pollen season or out of season, were stimulated with either TG extract or a pool of previously identified immunodominant antigenic regions.PBMCs from allergic subjects exhibit higher IL-5 and IL-10 responses in season than when collected out of season. In the case of non-allergic subjects, as expected we observed lower IL-5 responses and robust production of IFN-? compared to allergic individuals. Strikingly, non-allergic donors exhibited an opposing pattern, with decreased immune reactivity in season. The broad down-regulation in non-allergic donors indicates that healthy individuals are not oblivious to allergen exposure, but rather react with an active modulation of responses following the antigenic stimulus provided during the pollen season. Transcriptomic analysis of allergen-specific T cells defined genes modulated in concomitance with the allergen exposure and inhibition of responses in non-allergic donors.Magnitude and functionality of T helper cell responses differ substantially in season vs. out of season in allergic and non-allergic subjects. The results indicate the specific and opposing modulation of immune responses following the antigenic stimulation during the pollen season. This seasonal modulation reflects the enactment of specific molecular programmes associated with health and allergic disease.

SUBMITTER: Hinz D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4846575 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Lack of allergy to timothy grass pollen is not a passive phenomenon but associated with the allergen-specific modulation of immune reactivity.

Hinz D D Seumois G G Gholami A M AM Greenbaum J A JA Lane J J White B B Broide D H DH Schulten V V Sidney J J Bakhru P P Oseroff C C Wambre E E James E A EA Kwok W W WW Peters B B Vijayanand P P Sette A A

Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology 20160501 5

<h4>Background</h4>Timothy grass (TG) pollen is a common seasonal airborne allergen associated with symptoms ranging from mild rhinitis to severe asthma.<h4>Objective</h4>The aim of this study was to characterize changes in TG-specific T cell responses as a function of seasonality.<h4>Methods</h4>Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from allergic individuals and non-allergic controls, either during the pollen season or out of season, were stimulated with either TG extract or a poo ...[more]

PMID: 26662458

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Project description:Allergic diseases affect many individuals world-wide and are dependent on the interaction between allergens and antibodies of the IgE isotype. Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) can alter the development of the disease, e.g., through induction of allergen-specific IgG that block allergen-IgE interactions. The knowledge of epitopes recognized by allergy-causing and protective antibodies are limited. Therefore, we developed an allergome-wide peptide microarray, aiming to track linear epitope binding patterns in allergic diseases and during AIT. Here, we focused on immune responses to grass pollen allergens and found that such epitopes were commonly recognized before initiation of AIT and that AIT commonly resulted in increased antibody production against additional epitopes already after 1 year of treatment. The linear epitope binding patterns were highly individual, both for subjects subjected to and for individuals not subjected to AIT. Still, antibodies against some linear epitopes were commonly developed during AIT. For example, the two rigid domains found in grass pollen group 5 allergens have previously been associated to a diversity of discontinuous epitopes. Here, we present evidence that also the flexible linker, connecting these domains, contains regions of linear epitopes against which antibodies are developed during AIT. We also describe some commonly recognized linear epitopes on Phl p 2 and suggest how antibodies against these epitopes may contribute to or prevent allergy in relation to a well-defined stereotyped/public IgE response against the same allergen. Finally, we identify epitopes that induce cross-reactive antibodies, but also antibodies that exclusively bind one of two highly similar variants of a linear epitope. Our findings highlight the complexity of antibody recognition of linear epitopes, with respect to both the studied individuals and the examined allergens. We expect that many of the findings in this study can be generalized also to discontinuous epitopes and that allergen peptide microarrays provide an important tool for enhancing the understanding of allergen-specific antibodies in allergic disease and during AIT.

Project description:BACKGROUND:BM32, a grass pollen allergy vaccine containing four recombinant fusion proteins consisting of hepatitis B-derived PreS and hypoallergenic peptides from the major timothy grass pollen allergens adsorbed on aluminium hydroxide has been shown to be safe and to improve clinical symptoms of grass pollen allergy upon allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT). We have investigated the immune responses in patients from a two years double-blind, placebo-controlled AIT field trial with BM32. METHODS:Blood samples from patients treated with BM32 (n?=?27) or placebo (Aluminium hydroxide) (n?=?13) were obtained to study the effects of vaccination and natural allergen exposure on allergen-specific antibody, T cell and cytokine responses. Allergen-specific IgE, IgG, IgG1 and IgG4 levels were determined by ImmunoCAP and ELISA, respectively. Allergen-specific lymphocyte proliferation by 3H thymidine incorporation and multiple cytokine responses with a human 17-plex cytokine assay were studied in cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). FINDINGS:Two years AIT comprising two courses of 3 pre-seasonal injections of BM32 and a single booster after the first pollen season induced a continuously increasing (year 2 > year 1) allergen-specific IgG4 response without boosting allergen-specific IgE responses. Specific IgG4 responses were accompanied by low stimulation of allergen-specific PBMC responses. Increases of allergen-specific pro-inflammatory cytokine responses were absent. The rise of allergen-specific IgE induced by seasonal grass pollen exposure was partially blunted in BM32-treated patients. INTERPRETATION:AIT with BM32 is characterised by the induction of a non-inflammatory, continuously increasing allergen-specific IgG4 response (year 2 > year1) which may explain that clinical efficacy was higher in year 2 than in year 1. The good safety profile of BM32 may be explained by lack of IgE reactivity and low stimulation of allergen-specific T cell and cytokine responses. FUNDINGS:Grants F4605, F4613 and DK 1248-B13 of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Dataset Information

Lack of allergy to timothy grass pollen is not a passive phenomenon but associated with the allergen-specific modulation of immune reactivity.

Publications

Lack of allergy to timothy grass pollen is not a passive phenomenon but associated with the allergen-specific modulation of immune reactivity.

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