THE CHEMISTRY OF CONTACT ALLERGY - WHY IS A MOLECULE ALLERGENIC

This review concentrates on some specific aspects of the chemistry of allergic contact dermatitis. The way low molecular weight chemicals re act with skin proteins to form complete antigens will be discussed and the development of molecular modelling techniques to analyse molecula r recognition presented. Subsequently, how knowledge of the chemical s tructure can be used to estimate the allergenic activity of a molecule will be considered. This aspect includes work with qualitative and qu antitative structure-activity relationships (SAR) in the field of cont act allergy.