Epitopes on Allergens

By conventional immunological and physicochemical techniques natural allergens have been separated into antigenic and allergenic fractions. During the last years new methodological developments enabled to investigate their structures in detail. The first step was the identification of antigenic and allergenic (IgE-binding) epitopes on these molecules. This has been done for several major allergens from pollen, insect, fungal and epidermal allergens e.g. Usually 2–6 antigenic and 1–3 allergenic sites have been found. In some cases the primary structure of such epitopes or even the complete allergen has been uncovered. In a few of them (Der p I, Chi 11 e.g.) even the three-dimensional structure could be disclosed. Obviously sequential epitopes dominante — at least in grass pollen allergens. The methods which have been applied are monoclonal antibodies, improved techniques of peptide analysis and synthesis and above all cloning procedures.