Quantitation of latex allergens

Area of Science:

• Allergy and Immunology
• Materials Science
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Minimizing natural rubber latex (NRL) allergen concentration is vital for preventing latex sensitization and allergy.
• Current methods like total protein measurement are inadequate for controlling allergen content.
• Existing specific methods, such as RAST inhibition, lack standardization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate novel, standardized methods for measuring specific NRL allergens.
• To assess the prevalence of major NRL allergens in medical gloves.
• To establish a basis for setting allergen threshold levels for the rubber industry.

Main Methods:

• Utilized commercial capture ELISA assays with monoclonal antibodies for specific allergen detection.
• Analyzed medical gloves from Finnish market surveys (1995, 1999).
• Correlated allergen levels with patient skin prick test reactions.

Main Results:

• Identified Hev b 6.02 and Hev b 5 as the most abundant allergens in high- and moderate-allergen gloves.
• Detected Hev b 3 and Hev b 1, significant allergens for children with spina bifida.
• Found that a sum of these four allergens exceeding 1 microg/g often correlated with positive skin prick tests.

Conclusions:

• Standardized ELISA methods provide specific, sensitive, and reproducible measurement of NRL allergens.
• These methods enable the assessment of threshold levels, potentially guiding industry and regulatory bodies.
• Improved allergen assessment is expected to reduce the incidence of latex allergy.