Cockroach, a common insect pest in the urban inner-city environment, is an important source of inhalant indoor allergen resource, and has been recognized as a major cause of asthma. In 1964 Bernton and Brown first clearly documented the skin reaction test of cockroach allergens. In 1979 the relationship between asthmatic patients and inhalant cockroach allergens was conformed. According to the statistical analysis, 40-60% patients produced high level IgE to cockroach allergens in asthma-prone cities. Cockroach allergen is an important risk factor for asthmatics, but only nine American cockroach allergens have been identified so far. There are a lot of allergens waiting to be discovered.
Two novel allergen proteins Per a 11 and Per a 12 were purified and characterized from the midgut of American cockroaches using proteomics and other methods by Lai Ren’s research group in the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. They also found antibodies of the two novel allergens from the sera of American cockroaches allergy patients. These findings are helpful for further understanding of the material basis and mechanism of American cockroach allergy, and provide important evidence for cockroach allergy diagnosis and therapy, and also provide supports for the development of cockroach allergy treatment drug.
This work was jointly completed by the Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS and Kunming University of Science and Technology. Yaqun Fang, Chengbo Long and Xuewei Bai are co-first authors, Ren Lai and Shu An are co-correspond authors. This research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department. The relevant paper was published on September 12, 2015 in Allergy (Two new types of allergens from the cockroach, Periplaneta americana). The paper is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all. 12766/abstract.
(By Rong Ming-Qiang)
Contact: Ren LAI
Email: rlai@mail.kiz.ac.cn
