Cockroach, tick, storage mite and other arthropod allergies: Where do we stand with molecular allergy diagnostics?

Allergy – diagnostics – cockroach – tick – storage mite – arthropod Cockroach, tick, storage mite and other arthropod allergies: Where do we stand with molecular allergy diagnostics? Abstract Arthropods form a broad phylum within the animal kingdom, comprising widely varying members such as insects, arachnids, crabs and centipedes. In addition to common allergies to house dust mites or hy-menoptera venom, there are also rarer allergies that can be attributed to three major sources of allergens: cockroaches, ticks and storage mites. Other less known allergen sources include spiders, mosquitos, horse ies, red chironomid larvae, silver sh and lady-bugs, 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 characterisation of numerous individual aller-gens has already been carried out. However, these individual allergens are only available for a small number of allergen 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 dia-gnostics. e currently known individual allergens of the above-mentioned allergy triggers from the ar-thropod realm are summarized and their potential use in allergy diagnostics discussed. Cockroach, tick, storage mite and other arthropod allergies: Where do we stand with molecular allergy diagnostics? Part 15 of the Series Molecular Aller-gology. Introduction Arthropods form an extensive phylum of the animal kingdom, comprising widely varying members such as insects, arachnids, crabs and cen tipedes (Fig. 1). e molecular diagnostics of the frequent house dust mite allergy and the hymenoptera venom allergy has already been discussed in separate articles [1, 2]. e present article deals with rarer allergies to speci c members of the arthropod realm, describes the extracts available for diagnostic purposes as well as the currently known individual al-lergens and discusses their potential application in allergy diagnostics.