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Sub‐class of IgG anti‐bee venom antibody produced during bee venom immunotherapy and its relationship to long‐term protection from bee stings and following termination of venom immunotherapy
Author(s) -
URBANEK R.,
KEMENY D. M.,
RICHARDS D.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
clinical and experimental allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.462
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1365-2222
pISSN - 0954-7894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1986.tb01963.x
Subject(s) - venom , sting , immunotherapy , antibody , bee venom , immunology , honey bee , allergy , medicine , immunoglobulin e , biology , toxicology , pharmacology , immune system , botany , ecology , zoology , engineering , aerospace engineering
Summary The IgG sub‐class antibody response to bee venom in the four sub‐classes was investigated in ten patients during and after venom immunotherapy. All patients tolerated a bee sting challenge 1, 2 and 3 years after the start of treatment as well as 1 and 2 years after treatment was stopped. Anti‐phospholipase A 2 (PLA 2 ) antibodies were of IgG1 and IgG4 sub‐class and rose early in treatment, IgG1 anti‐PLA 2 fell to pre‐treatment levels after 3 years in contrast to IgG4 anti‐PLA 2 levels, which remained high during maintenance therapy and declined relatively little in the 2 years after the termination of treatment. This data shows that IgG4 antibodies are maintained in the absence of monthly maintenance injections and suggests that they may provide long lasting clinical protection from insect stings.