Pollen-Food Allergy Syndrome: Recent Data On Allergens Implicated

In France, 20 to 25% of the population are suffering from allergic disease. Respiratory allergies are the most frequent, especially in children, and are mostly due to pollen grains from trees and plants. Cross sensitizations between pollens and food are more and more frequent, and thus the symptom spectrum has broadened from respiratory to gastrointestinal, and even to anaphylactic shock in the presence of cofactors. Some allergenic protein families implicated in pollen-food allergy syndrome are well characterized from a molecular and a clinical points of view: PR-10 proteins, with the major allergen from Birch tree pollen, Bet v 1, as the most representative one, lipid transfer proteins, profitins and thaumatin-like proteins. Cypress-peach syndrome mechanism has been recently unraveled by discovering in cypress pollen a new allergen, Cup s 7, belonging to the gibberellin-regulated protein (GRP)family, which is responsible for the sensitization of many patients allergic to peach. The primary allergen of snakin/GRPs, Pru p 7, was first reported in peach in 2013, then in other fruits, i.e. japanese apricot, orange and pomegranate. Global warming induces a migration of the allergenic plant species toward the northern countries. It lengthens the pollination period and it increases the air pollution which in turn increases the allergenic capacity of the pollen grains and the sensitivity of the atopic patients. (C) 2020 l'Academie nationale de medecine. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.