The effect of treatment with HLA-DR based T cell peptides derived from phospholipase A2 on late-phase skin reactions and T cell function in subjects with mild honeybee allergy

RationaleVenom immunotherapy for allergy to honeybee stings is highly efficacious, but IgE-mediated systemic reactions frequently complicate treatment. Short, allergen-derived T cell peptides are potentially safer, but HLA polymorphism confers huge diversity to such epitopes, making the selection of peptides for therapy difficult. Texier et al (J Immunol 2000;164:3177-84) characterized T cell peptides of phospholipase A2 (PLA2, the major …