House dust mites: the insidious symbiosis
DOI: 10.32364/2587-6821-2023-7-2-89-95
S.I. Bardenikova1, T.I. Rychkova1, E.V. Kulikova1, O.B. Dovgun2, T.Yu. Belyaeva2
1A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, Moscow, Russian Federation
2St. Vladimir Children's City Clinical Hospital, Moscow, Russian Federation
Aim: to assess changes in the patterns of sensitization to house dust allergens in a cohort of children with allergic disorders over the last 30 years.
Patients and Methods: this retrospective analysis included 26,343 protocols of allergy tests to house dust and its allergenic components (house mix, D. pteronyssinus and D. farinae mites, library dust) that had been carried out in children 4–18 years old over the period from 1989 to 2019. Skin testing was performed using the generally accepted scarification technique on the anterior surface of the forearm through a drop of the tested allergen. Then, the test results are assessed by visual inspection with a score of 1 — 4. The results of continuous monitoring were summarized and statistically processed for all years of the observation period, but the article presents analysis of the "cross-section" indicators only for those years that were convenient for comparison. The authors calculated a percentage ratio of the number of patients sensitized to the studied allergen to the total number of patients tested for hypersensitivity to this allergen during a particular year. Then, they compared the percentage of patients with low (1–2) and high (3–4) scores.
Results and Discussion: the analysis showed a steady increase in IgE hypersensitivity to the house dust mix (from 23.7% in 1989 to 71.2% in 2019). Also, it demonstrated an increase in the degree of sensitization (3 — 4 scores) to the integral dust mix (from 4.2% in 1989 to 16.6% in 2019), which was significantly higher than that to the dust mites themselves due to the diverse composition of specific proteins of epidermal, fungal, bacterial, and insect origin that can induce antibodies independently on each other. There was a similar 2.6-fold growth in sensitization to the library dust over the first 10 years of observation, and by 2019 hypersensitization developed in 57.2% of children from this cohort. However, a dramatic decline in high scores (3–4) of the detected level to 5% was reported in 2019 which was associated with the changes in the ways of in-house data storage.
Conclusion: the study findings provide a rationale for the mandatory control of dynamic changes in sensitization among children with allergic disorders using an expended household allergen panel. The steady increase in sensitization to house dust allergens confirms a low effectiveness of elimination measures and suggests a progressive immune imbalance under the everyday pressure of urban ecology.
Keywords: children, house dust, allergens of house and library dust, household sensitization, mites.
For citation: Bardenikova S.I., Rychkova T.I., Kulikova E.V. et al. House dust mites: the insidious symbiosis. Russian Medical Inquiry. 2023;7(2):89–95 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.32364/2587-6821-2023-7-2-89-95.
About the authors:
Svetlana I. Bardenikova — C. Sc. (Med.), associate professor of the Department of Pediatrics, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry; 20/1, Delegatskaya str., Moscow, 127473, Russian Federation; ORCID iD 0000-0002-3428-0843.
Tatyana I. Rychkova — C. Sc. (Med.), associate professor of the Department of Pediatrics, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry; 20/1, Delegatskaya str., Moscow, 127473, Russian Federation.
Elena V. Kulikova — C. Sc. (Med.), associate professor of the Department of Pediatrics, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry; 20/1, Delegatskaya str., Moscow, 127473, Russian Federation.
Oksana B. Dovgun — C. Sc. (Med.), associate professor, Head of the Department of Pulmonology, St. Vladimir Children's City Clinical Hospital; 1/3, Rubtsovsko-Dvortsovaya str., Moscow, 107014, Russian Federation; ORCID iD 0000-0001-6306-1546.
Tatyana Yu. Belyaeva — Deputy Chief Physician for Medical Affairs, St. Vladimir Children's City Clinical Hospital; 1/3, Rubtsovsko-Dvortsovaya str., Moscow, 107014, Russian Federation.
Contact information: Svetlana I. Bardenikova, е-mail: s_bard@bk.ru.
Financial Disclosure: no authors have a financial or property interest in any material or method mentioned.
There is no conflict of interests.
Received 11.07.2022.
Revised 03.08.2022.
Accepted 26.08.2022.
2. Acevedo N., Zakzuk J., Caraballo L. House dust mite allergy under changing environments. Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2019;11(4):450–469. DOI: 10.4168/aair.2019.11.4.450.
3. Fernández-Caldas E., Puerta L., Caraballo L. Mites and allergy. Chem Immunol Allergy. 2014;100:234–242. DOI: 10.1159/000358860.
4. Colloff M.J. Methods in house dust mite ecology and biology. In: Dust Mites. Springer, Dordrecht. 2009. DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-2224-0.26.
5. Yubao C. When mites attack: domestic mites are not just allergens. Parasit Vectors. 2014;7:411. DOI: 10.1186/1756-3305-7-411.
6. Vaycekauskaite R.L. Tick-borne component in atopic bronchial asthma. In: abstracts of the VI conference. Kaunas. 1986:83–84 (in Russ.).
7. Puhlik B.M., Bobelo B.M., Dzyubenko S.P. House dust mites are the most important allergens in the human environment. Klinicheskaya immunologiya, allergologiya, infektologiya. 2018;3(108):22–26 (in Russ.).
8. Bousquet P.J., Chinn S., Janson C. et al. Geographical variation in the prevalence of positive skin tests to environmental aeroallergens in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey I. Allergy. 2007;62(3):301–309. DOI: 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2006.01293.x.
9. Ilyina N.I.1, Luss L.V.1, Kurbacheva O.M. et al. The influence of climatic factors on the spectrum and structure of allergic diseases in the case of the Moscow region. Russian Journal of Allergy. 2014;2:25–30 (in Russ.).
10. Surovenko T.N. Sensitization to house dust mites and its role in the development of allergic inflammation of the respiratory tract in bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis: thesis. Vladivostok; 2005 (in Russ.).
11. Cunningham M.J. Controlling dust mites psychrometrically — a review for building scientists and engineers. Indoor Air. 2004;6(4):249–258. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0668.1996.00004.x.
12. Sander I., Zahradnik Е., Kraus G. et al. Domestic мite аntigens in floor and аirborne dust at workplaces in сomparison to living аreas: а new immunoassay to assess personal airborne allergen exposure. PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e52981. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052981.
13. Rintala H., Pitkäranta M., Täubel M. Microbial communities associated with house dust. Adv Appl Microbiol. 2012;78:75–120. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-394805-2.00004-X.
14. Cuthbert O.D., Brostoff J., Wraith D.G., Brighton W.D. ‘Barn allergy': asthma and rhinitis due to storage mites. Clin Allergy. 1979;9(3):229–236. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1979.tb01547.x.
15. Apter A., Bracker A., Hodgson M. et al. Epidemiology of sick building syndrome. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1994;94(2):277–288. DOI: 10.1053/ai.1994.v94.a56006.
16. Paufler Р., Gebel T., Dunkelberg H. Quantification of house dust mite allergens in ambient air. Rev Environ Health. 2001;16:65–80. DOI: 10,1515/reveh.2001.16.1.65.
17. Haitov R.M., Ilyina N.I. Allergology and Immunology: National Guide. M.: GEOTAR-Media; 2014 (in Russ.).
18. Thomas W.R. IgE and T-cell responses to house dust mite allergen components. Mol Immunol. 2018;100:120–125. DOI: 10.1016/j.molimm.2018.03.016.
19. Platts-Mills T.A. The allergy epidemics: 1870-2010. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2015;136(1):3–13. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2015.03.048.
20. Aronov N. How are books treated? Zhurnal "Ogonyok". 2016;25:30. (Electronic resorce.) URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3017911 (access date: 15.01.2023) (in Russ.).
21. Von Hertzen L., Haahtela N. Con: house dust mites in atopic diseases accused for 45 years but not guilty? Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009;180(2):113–119; discussion 119–120. DOI: 10.1164/rccm.200807-1001CO.
22. Zuiani C., Custovic A. Update on house dust mite allergen avoidance measures for asthma. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2020;20(9):50. DOI: 10.1007/s11882-020-00948-y.
23. Besarab S. Dust, dust mites and their allergens. Prevention and protection. 2021. (Electronic resource.) URL: https://habr.com/ru/post/580034/ (access date: 15.01.2023) (in Russ.).
24. Panzner Р., Vachová М., Vlas Т. et al. Cross-sectional study on sensitization to mite and cockroach allergen components in allergy patients in the Central European region. Clin Transl Allergy. 2018;8:19. DOI: 10.1186/s13601-018-0207-x.
25. Bala A.M., Kleschenko A.B., Chursinova Yu.V. Current possibilities of an allergy laboratory diagnosis. RMJ. 2019;1(II):56–61 (in Russ.).
26. Trusova O.V., Kamaev A.V., Lyashenko N.L. Sensitization to household allergens in children with bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis in St. Petersburg. Allergology and Immunology in Pediatrics. 2021;2(65):11–18 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.24412/2500-1175-2021-2-11-18.
27. Thomas W.R. House dust allergy and immunotherapy. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2012;8(10):1469–1478. DOI: 10.4161/hv.20812.
28. Gushchin I.S., Kurbacheva O.M. Allergy and allergen-specific immunotherapy. M.: Farmarus Print Media; 2010 (in Russ.).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons «Attribution» 4.0 License.
