Pollen allergy in peach-allergic patients: Sensitization and cross-reactivity to taxonomically unrelated pollens

Background: Fruit allergy has been attributed to cross-reactive IgE to poll ens and has been associated with a particular pollen sensitization. Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate sensitization to several ta xonomically unrelated pollens in peach- and pollen-allergic patients and to study cross-reactivity between them. Methods: One hundred sixty-five patients were evaluated: 70 peach- allergic patients together with 95 pollen-allergic patients (control group). Pollen skin tests in duplicate were performed to 5 grasses, 8 trees, and 7 weeds, Cross-reactivity between peach and taxonomically diverse pollens was deter mined by radioallergosorbent inhibition and Western blot inhibition tests, Experiments were also carried out after preadsorption of the sera with puri fied natural profilin. Results: The skin test results revealed that peach-allergic patients freque ntly reacted to most pollens-grasses, weeds, and trees-even when some of th ese are not found in our geographic area. There was a statistically signifi cant increase in sensitization frequency to most trees and weeds, with a st atistically higher occurrence of asthma (odds ratio 2.98, 95% confidence in terval 1.46-6.09). Inhibition test results provided evidence that taxonomic ally unrelated grasses, weeds, and trees produced various and substantial d egrees of inhibition in specific IgE to peach and that the peach extract el icited strong inhibitions to those pollens. Profilin was found to be a rele vant cross-reactive antigen in these patients. Conclusion: The results of this study provide evidence that peach allergy i s linked to sensitization to several taxonomically unrelated pollens. This is attributable to the ubiquitous nature of the IgE binding determinants-su ch as profilins-between peach and taxonomically unrelated pollens.