Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Jul;332(1):e70042.
doi: 10.1111/imr.70042.

Epitope-Specific Antibodies in Allergic Disease and Clinical Tolerance

Orlee Marini-Rapoport  1   2 , Moumita Bhowmik  1   2 , Tarun Keswani  1   2 , Sarita U Patil  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Epitope-Specific Antibodies in Allergic Disease and Clinical Tolerance

Orlee Marini-Rapoport et al. Immunol Rev. 2025 Jul.

Abstract

B-cell epitope specificity on food allergens is highly relevant to understanding both the pathogenesis of IgE and IgG-mediated clinical tolerance after immunotherapy. The molecular binding interactions between the paratopes of antibodies and the epitopes of food allergens drive IgE-crosslinking, the subsequent activation of allergen effector cells, and the symptoms of systemic and life-threatening anaphylaxis. Various characteristics of allergen-specific IgE, such as high affinity and clonal diversity, can contribute to the persistence of food allergy and the severity of anaphylaxis upon allergen exposure. On the other hand, the induction of epitope-specific IgG antibodies in allergic individuals can inhibit IgE binding to food allergens. A subset of these can be neutralizing antibodies that effectively disrupt multiple allergen-IgE interactions to suppress effector responses. This review details the crucial role of epitope specificity and antibody clonality in both the pathogenesis of food allergy and in the development of clinical tolerance.

Keywords: IgE; IgG; allergy; food allergy; neutralizing antibodies; oral immunotherapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Tiselius A, Kabat EA, An Electrophoretic Study of Immune Sera and Purified Antibody Preparations. J Exp Med 69, 119–131 (1939). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bennich HH, Ishizaka K, Johansson SG, Rowe DS, Stanworth DR, Terry WD, Immunoglobulin E A new class of human immunoglobulin. Immunochemistry 5, 327–328 (1968). - PubMed
    1. Burks AW, Williams LW, Helm RM, Connaughton C, Cockrell G, O'Brien T, Identification of a major peanut allergen, Ara h I, in patients with atopic dermatitis and positive peanut challenges. J Allergy Clin Immunol 88, 172–179 (1991). - PubMed
    1. Albillos SM, Jin T, Howard A, Zhang Y, Kothary MH, Fu TJ, Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray characterization of prunin-1, a major component of the almond (Prunus dulcis) allergen amandin. J Agric Food Chem 56, 5352–5358 (2008). - PubMed
    1. Ball A, Khatri K, Glesner J, Vailes LD, Wunschmann S, Gabel SA, Mueller GA, Zhang J, Peebles RS Jr., Chapman MD, Smith SA, Chruszcz M, Pomes A, Structural analysis of human IgE monoclonal antibody epitopes on dust mite allergen Der p 2. J Allergy Clin Immunol 154, 447–457 (2024). - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources