Avidity of Aspergillus umbrosus IgG antibodies in farmer's lung disease

Abstract

SUMMARYFarmer's lung disease (FL)-the commonest form of allergic alveolitis caused by repeated inhalation of mouldy hay. is associated with exposure lo the fungus Aspergithis umbrosus among Einnish farmers. The antigen-binding avidity of A. j/mA/asM.s-specific IgG antibodies was measured in 12 EL patients in acute phases of initial and recurrent attacks and during 1 year foliow up as well as in 12 healthy farmers and five healthy urban controls. The farmers* groups were further divided into two subgroups: subjects with short exposure ( < 7 years) and subjects with long exposure (> 25 years). During the first acute phase PL patients with long exposure exhibited a high avidity of /I, umbrosusspecifie IgG antibodies that remained high during the I year follow up, although tlie A. umbrosusspecific IgG antibody tilre decreased. A re-exposure lo mouldy hay leading to a recurrence further enhanced ihc maturation ofthe antibody avidity, so thai an even higher A. um6r05«s-specific IgG avidity with a less signiticant increase of antibody tilre occurred than during the first acute attack. Notably higher IgG anlibody avidity was observed in FL patients with long exposure than in healthy farmers or in healthy controls.

Health effects of Aspergillus in food and air

“…Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (allergic alveolitis) results from inhalation of large numbers of spores, and causes flu-like symptoms, coughing and chest tightness 4-6 hours after exposure. These include malt worker's lung (A. clavatus and A. fumigatus), air-conditioning disease (A. fumigatus) (Stevens, 1987), and farmer's lung (A. umbosus and others, Kaukonen et al, 1994).…”

Western blotting as a tool for the serodiagnosis of farmer’s lung disease: validation with Lichtheimia corymbifera protein extracts

“…However, this finding was not further evaluated to define a threshold by ROC curve analysis for the serodiagnosis of FLD, as described in our study. Kaukonen et al (1993) carried out Western blotting with antigenic proteins from Aspergillus umbrosus. Similar to the findings of Aznar et al (1988), they reported that signals observed with FLD sera were of a higher intensity than signals detected with HEC sera.…”

Isolation, purification and characterization of proteins from indoor strains of eurotium amstelodami, eurotium rubrum and eurotium herbariorum that are antigenic to humans

“…Conditions such as chronic hypersensitive pneumonitis or pulmonary mycotoxicosis (farmer's lung) are often related to occupation (Kaukonen et al, 1994(Kaukonen et al, , 1996Hjort et al, 20 1986). Allergy or hypersensitivity can be described as an immune response against a foreign antigen that is exaggerated beyond the norm.…”

“…Eurotium amstelodami is believed to cause farmer's lung -a common form of hypersensitive pneumonia (Kaukonen et al, 1994;Hjort et al, 1986) and may evolve into end-stage lung disease (Lacasse, 2003). It can result from repeated exposures to high concentrations or prolonged exposures to low concentration of inhaled allergens from mold-covered straw and hay to which the patient has previously been sensitized (Fenoglio, 2007;Radon, 2002;Roussel et al, 2010).…”