Toward elucidating the full spectrum of mite allergens--state of the art.

Our research has focused on the molecular design of immunotherapeutic vaccines and the advancement of mite-allergy diagnosis. Here, we describe the research history of the major group 1 and group 2 allergens, immunoelectrophoretic analyses covering the complete spectrum of mite allergens, our results on allergens with distinctive characteristics (a conjunctival congestion-eliciting antigen [LM2], an immunotherapeutic antigen [HM2] with high efficacy and without definite adverse reactions, and a potent T-cell stimulatory antigen [HM1] with secretion of IFN-gamma), the full spectrum and immunochemical properties of the major and other important mite allergens (including our newly described allergens: a pan-allergen [tropomyosin, group 10], a potent T-cell stimulatory allergen [M-177, apolipophorin, group 14] and its peptide fragments Mag1 and Mag3, a moderate IgE-binding allergen [gelsolin/villin, group 16], an EF-hand Ca2+-binding allergen [group 17], and a less IgE-binding allergen [heat shock protein 70]), and prospects for the development of immunotherapeutic and diagnostic agents.