The investigators want to study the effect of environmental nitrogen enrichment on the allergy burden in pollen-sensitized subjects.
The investigators want to study allergen-specific IgE reactivity from a cross-sectional sample of pollen-allergic patients (and negative controls) against environmental and experimental pollen samples. Following aspects will be compared: * To study the basophil degranulation with different amounts of pollen on fresh patient-derived basophils, to determine the concentration of pollen needed to degranulate 5% (EC5), and 50% (EC50) of basophils. * To study he overall intensity (quantitative), as well as IgE-mediated hyper- or hyporecognition of different fragments in the pollen samples (qualitative) in a subset of patients. * To associate allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and food-pollen syndrome related symptoms with reactivity to different pollen samples.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
200
Blood samples will be collected and used to determine the intensity of the allergenicity of the subject toward different types of pollen. This will be done by the detection of sIgE antibodies to the pollen extracts and basophil activation testing (BAT) with pollen extracts.
Blood samples will be collected and used to determine the background activity of our immunoreactivity tests. The investigators will use samples from negative controls to demonstrate that non-allergic individuals do not react to our assays, confirming that our pollen extracts have no background reactivity. This will be done by the detection of sIgE antibodies to the pollen extracts and basophil activation testing (BAT) with pollen extracts.
University Hospitals Leuven
Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium
RECRUITINGSpecific IgE reactivity (in-house developed) against environmental and experimental pollen samples
The investigators want to measure and compare sIgE values (kUA/L) towards different pollen samples.
Time frame: From time of inclusion to 12 months
Basophil degranulation with different amounts of pollen on fresh patient-derived basophils.
The investigators want to measure and compare basophil degranulation with different pollen extracts on fresh patient-derived basophils. The investigators will use %CD63+ basophils as measure for basophil reactivity and sensitivity. The investigators will compare this between different pollen samples.
Time frame: From time of inclusion to 12 months
Overall intensity (quantitative) of IgE reactivity to pollen samples in a subset of patients.
The investigators will use an immunoblot to compare IgE mediated reactivity toward different pollen samples. Quantitatively, the investigators will compare band intensity (mean gray value) between different samples.
Time frame: From time of inclusion to 12 months
IgE-mediated hyper- or hyporecognition of different fragments in the pollen samples (qualitative) in a subset of patients.
The investigators will use an immunoblot to compare IgE mediated reactivity toward different pollen samples. Qualitatively, the investigators will compare presence of bands between samples.
Time frame: From time of inclusion to 12 months
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