Importancia médica de los alergenos de ácaros domésticos

Abstract

Respiratory diseases are very frequent health problems today, some of them, such as asthma, affect a great percentage of both both adults and children. Allergic asthma is a multifactorial disease, the environmental component being crucial, afact which has been widely documented as a result of recent scientific advances in experimental allergology. Domestic mites are the main allergen source in household dust. Such allergens are now considered to be important inducers of respiratory allergic symptoms. These animals are arthropoda with a worlwide distribution, being Dermatophagoidespteronyssinusand Blomia tropicalis, the commonest found in the domestic environment. These species are clinically relevant because the rnajority of asthmatic and rhinitic patients present high titers of IgE antibodies against mite allergens which strongly influence the pathogenesis of the inflarnmation which characterizes these diseases. This review describes the biology, epidemiology and molecular aspects of Dermatophagoidespteronyssinusand Blomia tropicalis allergens, information that could be useful for physicians and health workers having the interest and opportunity to carry out integral management of these problems.