ArticlePLoS computational biology2015
Comparisons of Allergenic and Metazoan Parasite Proteins: Allergy the Price of Immunity.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Current Efficacy of Multiepitope Vaccines Against Helminths: A Systematic Review.Biomolecules · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of treating helminths during pregnancy and early childhood on risk of allergy-related outcomes: Follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · 2017Trial
- Parasites and allergies: a complex bidirectional relationship from evolutionary origins to modern therapeutics.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- A Unified Pathogenesis of Allergic Diseases; The Protein-Homeostasis-System Hypothesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Multiple overlapping risk factors for childhood wheeze among children in Benin.European journal of medical research · 2022Article
- Allergen skin test reactivity and asthma are inversely associated with ratios of IgG4/IgE and total IgE/allergen-specific IgE in Ugandan communities.Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2021Article
- Article
- Observational
- Historical analysis of inverse correlation between soil-transmitted helminthiasis and pancreatic cancer.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2020Article
- Article
- AllergoOncology: ultra-low IgE, a potential novel biomarker in cancer-a Position Paper of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI).Clinical and translational allergy · 2020Review
- Parasites and allergy: Observations from Africa.Parasite immunology · 2019Review
- Do helminth infections underpin urban-rural differences in risk factors for allergy-related outcomes?Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2019Article
- Structural and Dynamic Properties of Allergen and Non-Allergen Forms of Tropomyosin.Structure (London, England : 1993) · 2018Article
- The Canary Islands as a model of risk of pulmonary dirofilariasis in a hyperendemic area.Parasitology research · 2018Article
- Schistosoma mansoni-specific immune responses and allergy in Uganda.Parasite immunology · 2018Article
- The immunology of the allergy epidemic and the hygiene hypothesis.Nature immunology · 2017Review
- Influence of Parasitic Worm Infections on Allergy Diagnosis in Sub-Saharan Africa.Current allergy and asthma reports · 2017Review
- Article
- A life without worms.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Allergic reactions can be considered as maladaptive IgE immune responses towards environmental antigens. Intriguingly, these mechanisms are observed to be very similar to those implicated in the acquisition of an important degree of immunity against metazoan parasites (helminths and arthropods) in mammalian hosts. Based on the hypothesis that IgE-mediated immune responses evolved in mammals to provide extra protection against metazoan parasites rather than to cause allergy, we predict that the environmental allergens will share key properties with the metazoan parasite antigens that are specifically targeted by IgE in infected human populations. We seek to test this prediction by examining if significant similarity exists between molecular features of allergens and helminth proteins that induce an IgE response in the human host. By employing various computational approaches, 2712 unique protein molecules that are known IgE antigens were searched against a dataset of proteins from helminths and parasitic arthropods, resulting in a comprehensive list of 2445 parasite proteins that show significant similarity through sequence and structure with allergenic proteins. Nearly half of these parasite proteins from 31 species fall within the 10 most abundant allergenic protein domain families (EF-hand, Tropomyosin, CAP, Profilin, Lipocalin, Trypsin-like serine protease, Cupin, BetV1, Expansin and Prolamin). We identified epitopic-like regions in 206 parasite proteins and present the first example of a plant protein (BetV1) that is the commonest allergen in pollen in a worm, and confirming it as the target of IgE in schistosomiasis infected humans. The identification of significant similarity, inclusive of the epitopic regions, between allergens and helminth proteins against which IgE is an observed marker of protective immunity explains the 'off-target' effects of the IgE-mediated immune system in allergy. All these findings can impact the discovery and design of molecules used in immunotherapy of allergic conditions.
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Registered trials
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