DIAGNOSTIC IMMUNOBLOT from PHILIPPINE GRASSES ALLERGENIC

POLLEN EXTRACTS as an ALTERNATIVE to SKIN TESTING

Dr. Leonora Autus-Geniston
Assistant Professor, St Paul University Quezon City

The topic will discuss the outcome of the partnership between the academe and
the industry, between PGH and Unilab. This is a good example of postering
partnership between a teaching hospital and the industry. It will also discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of the partnership. The study deals in developing
an immunoblot method of detecting respiratory llergies using local grass pollen
grains for immuno diagnosis. As a tropical country, grass pollen grains are the
important causes of respiratory allergies in the Philippines. There are different
flora in the Philippines compared to that of the western countries where the
pollen standards in clinical practice are imported for diagnosis of respiratory
allergies. The current practice in the clinic is done by using grass pollen extracts
from the US and use them for testing. The current study was able to characterize
extracts from grass pollen from bermuda, carabao, cogon and talahib by
determining their sizes using differential gel electrophoresis. The study showed
the varying concentrations of grass pollen extracts as well as the protein profile
of their sizes. These sizes correspond to known groups of pollen allergens. It was
also found out that the clinical diagnosis is consistent with the identification of the
known allergen of the patient with the aid of local protein extracts. This method
can be an aid for personalized treatment of the patients. Therefore, the method
was able to establish that it is possible to use the extracts from the local grass
pollen in identifying the source of the allergenicity of the patients, and therefore,
detection became more specific in comparison to imported pollen standard
extracts which might be of different species from the local plants.