Cockroach, tick, storage mite, and other arthropod allergies: Molecular aspects. In Molecular allergy diagnostics: Innovation for a better patient management. (Book Chapter)

Arthropods form an extensive phylum of the animal kingdom, comprising widely varying members such as insects, arachnids, chitin-exoskeleton “shellfish” (e.g., crabs, shrimp, and lobsters), and centipedes. In addition to worldwide common allergies to house dust mites or hymenoptera venom, other allergies may become important in certain areas and are attributed to three major sources of allergens: cockroaches, ticks, and storage mites. Other less common allergen sources include spiders, mosquitoes, horseflies, red chironomid (midge) larvae, silverfish, and ladybugs, as well as a variety of storage pests. At present, only extract-based test systems are available for the majority of allergens in IgE-based diagnostics. Molecular characterization of numerous individual allergens has already been carried out. However, these individual allergens are only available for a small number of sources (e.g., cockroaches and storage mites) in routine diagnostics. Particularly in the case of allergen sources with known high cross-reactivity, the use of marker allergens is believed to improve diagnostics. The currently known individual allergens of the abovementioned allergy triggers from the arthropod realm are summarized, and their potential use in allergy diagnostics is discussed.