Sensitization patterns of plant panallergens in Georgian allergic population from the molecular perspective.

Introduction: In allergy diagnostics, component-resolved diagnostics (CRD) allows the clinician to assess the presence of specific IgE (sIgE) to allergenic proteins. Molecular diagnostics has improved our ability to identify not only species-specific, but also panallergen components.

Aim: To characterize the Georgian allergic population according to the most frequently recognized plant panallergen components (profilins, PR-10 and nonspecific lipid transfer proteins) using sensitization data from multiplex CRD and investigate their association with particular allergic diseases.

Material and methods: Patients, IgE positive to at least one studied panallergen component, were selected out of total 435 allergic individuals and stratified in two age groups: children and adults. Descriptive statistics, Chi square test (χ²) and Pearson Correlation test (r) were used for analysing the data.

Results: 38% (164/435) of investigated allergic patients showed IgE reactivity to at least one molecule belonging to Profilin, PR-10 and nsLTP families. Generally, PR-10 reactive individuals represented the largest group of patients (56.0%), followed by Profilins (43.0%) and nsLTP (32.0%). For the PR-10 allergen group, IgE sensitization was dominated by Bet v 1, for Profilin - by Hev b 8 and for nsLTP - by Pru p 3. It was shown that sensitization with nsLTPs revealed statistically important associations with allergic rhinitis (p = 0.005) and dermatitis (p = 0.02). PR-10 allergen sensitization was associated with allergic rhinitis (p = 0.04) and asthma (p = 0.04).

Conclusions: According to our results, sensitization to plant panallergens in the Georgian population creates characteristic features overlapping serotypes of Central Europe and Mediterranean region.