Division of
Medical Biotechnology Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research

Merima Bublin: areas of research

Clinical relevance of cross-reactivity between peanut and tree nuts

Peanut allergic patients frequently have co-allergies to tree nuts. Knowing the risk of severe reactions to nuts is highly important for patient management, especially for children. Standard IgE tests for nuts have low specificities. Hence, many peanut allergic patients avoid all nuts even without a clinical confirmation of nut allergy. Current IgE tests may be positive to a range of nuts due to IgE cross-reactivity among homologues allergens or due to independent co-sensitivities. Therefore, diagnostic tools to distinguish between clinically relevant and irrelevant sensitizations are urgently needed.

Our current project aims at answering the following questions: 1. Are there individual marker allergens or combinations of allergens from peanut and tree nut that can contribute to accurate decision making in the clinical practice? 2. Is co-existing peanut and tree nut allergy a consequence of cross-reactivity between homologous allergens or caused by independent co-sensitization to multiple nuts?

Selected publications

Kabasser S, Crvenjak N, Schmalz S, Kalic T, Hafner C, Dubiela P, Kucharczyk A, Bazan-Socha S, Lukaszyk M, Breiteneder H, Radauer C, Bublin M:
Pru du 1, the Bet v 1-homologue from almond, is a major allergen in patients with birch pollen associated almond allergy.
Clin Transl Allergy 2022, 12, e12177. [PubMed] [Full Text]

Kabasser S, Pratap K, Kamath S, Taki AC, Dang T, Koplin J, Perrett K, Hummel K, Radauer C, Breiteneder H, Lopata AL, Bublin M:
Identification of vicilin, legumin and antimicrobial peptide 2a as macadamia nut allergens.
Food Chem 2022, 370, 131028. [PubMed] [Full Text]

Kabasser S, Hafner C, Chinthrajah S, Sindher SB, Kumar D, Kost LE, Long AJ, Nadeau KC, Breiteneder H, Bublin M:
Identification of Pru du 6 as a potential marker allergen for almond allergy.
Allergy 2021, (in press) [PubMed] [Full Text]

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Biological activities of allergens

Our long-standing interest has been identifying structural and functional characteristics of allergens that determine their allergenicity. We focus on features of allergens which are critical for events that occur during early stages of the allergic sensitization process – the initial passage through the intestinal epithelium. We are establishing Caenorhabditis elegans as a model host, which allow us to elucidate the initial interactions of allergens with epithelial cells in the context of a whole organism.

DAF-16::GFP localization to the intestinal nuclei in C. elegans after treatment with an allergen

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