title: Asthma after consumption of snails in house-dust-mite-allergic patients: a case of IgE cross-reactivity.
abstract: A group of 28 patients from Italy was studied who had asthma after consumption of snail. All patients also had asthma and/or rhinitis caused by house-dust mite. RAST analyses confirmed the combined sensitization to snail and mite. In a few sera, IgE antibodies reactive with other foods of invertebrate origin (mussel and shrimp) were detected. RAST inhibition showed that most IgE antibodies against snail were cross-reactive with house-dust mite. In contrast, the mite RAST was not significantly inhibited by snail. This indicates that house-dust mite was the sensitizing agent. Immunoblot analyses revealed multiple bands in snail extract recognized by IgE. In contrast to what has been described for cross-reactivity between shrimp and mite, tropomyosin played only a minor role as a cross-reactive allergen in these patients. The observations in this study indicate that snail consumption can cause severe asthmatic symptoms in house-dust-mite-allergic patients. It might, therefore, be advisable to screen mite-allergic asthma patients for allergy to snail and other invertebrate animal foods.
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory of The Netherlands Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van Ree
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Antonicelli
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Akkerdaas
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Pajno
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barberio
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corbetta
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zambito
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Garritani
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Aalberse
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bonifazi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology; D049872:Bivalvia; D003429:Cross Reactions; D033364:Decapoda; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008925:Mites; D011852:Radioallergosorbent Test; D012908:Snails
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D007073:Immunoglobulin E