A major problem with allergen-specific immunotherapy involving repeated injection of allergens is the risk of an anaphylactic reaction. We engineered the major house dust mite allergen, Der f 2, to reduce its capacity to induce skin test reactivity and histamine release from peripheral blood basophils in allergic patients. The engineered allergen, in which the disulfide bond that linked the N- and C-terminal sequences of Der f 2 was disrupted, retained T-cell epitopes essential for immunotherapy and ability to stimulate T-cell proliferation. Such engineered allergens are potentially useful for safer and more effective immunotherapy for allergies.

Transcriptional regulation of the gene-encoding human FcεRI α-chain was analyzed in detail. EMSA revealed that either YY1 or PU.1 bound to the region close to that recognized by Elf-1. The α-chain promoter activity was up-regulated ∼2-fold by exogenously expressed YY1 or PU.1 and ∼7-fold by GATA-1, respectively, in KU812 cells. In contrast, coexpression of GATA-1 with either of PU.1 or YY1 dramatically activated the promoter ∼41- or ∼27-fold, respectively. Especially synergic activation by GATA-1 and PU.1 was surprising, because these transcription factors are known to inhibit the respective transactivating activities of each other. These up-regulating effects of PU.1 and YY1 with GATA-1 were inhibited by overexpression of Elf-1, indicating that Elf-1 serves as a repressor for the α-chain gene expression. Transcriptional regulation of the α-chain gene through four transcriptional factors is discussed.

This paper presents visualization of transient sound propagation in 2-dimensional room sound fields in which the typical shapes of concert halls are modeled by applying the finite difference time domain method. As a basic study on room acoustic design, sound propagation in rooms, scattering effect of acoustic diffusers and reflection characteristics of suspended panel arrays are investigated. Through the investigation, it has been confirmed that this kind of visualization technique is very effective to get intuitive comprehension of complex acoustic phenomena which occur in rooms. The technique can be useful tool for discussion on room and acoustic treatment between acoustic engineers and architects.

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