Structural analysis of mite antigen

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As the first step to resolve the problem of "house dust mite allergy", several major antigens in mite body and its feces were isolated from a large-scale culture of Dermatophagoides farinae, and their immunological and chemical properties were analyzed.Under monitoring the antigenicity using sera of patients with mite allergy, animal antisera against mite, and mouse monoclonal anti-mite antibodies, a large (MW ca. 10^5) and a small (MW 2x10^3-5x10^3) antigens were isolated as the novel and mahor mite antigens. The large antigen was a glycoprotein containing ba. 80% of carbohydrates and expected to ba an effective vaccine for hyposensitization therapy of mite allergy as it showed a substantially high immunogenicity but no induction of anaphylactic shock in guinea pigs. The small antigen was a protein without carbohydrate and expected as the useful materials containing the allergy-specific epitopes in preparing effective vaccines. A new mite body with a very low hydrophobicity was also isolated.Furthermore, after isolation of mRNAs from mite body and preparation of their cDNAs, many kinds of mite antigens were detected in the genetic products of the cDNAs. Therefore, the genetic method was expected to develop a large-scale production of mite vaccine for hyposensitization therapy.On the other hand, a HPLC system was developed for the antigen-dependent leukocyte histamine-release assay in minute amount of patient's blood. The new assay could remarkably improve the diagnosis of mite allergy in accuracy.