system
Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Adult, Allergens, Amino Acid Sequence, Asthma, Base Sequence, Cladosporium, Cloning, Molecular, Cross Reactions, DNA, Complementary, Fungal Proteins, Humans, Immunoblotting, Immunoglobulin E, Molecular Sequence Data, RNA, Fungal, Recombinant Proteins, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, Sequence Alignment, Sequence Analysis, Protein, Serine Endopeptidases.
user
Is vacuolar serine protease a major allergen of Cladosporium cladosporioides? Context: Cladosporium is an important allergenic fungus worldwide. We report here a major allergen of C. cladosporioides. Major C. cladosporioides allergens were characterized by immunoblotting, N-terminal amino acid sequencing, protein purification and cDNA cloning. Seventy-four sera (38%) from 197 bronchial asthmatic patients demonstrated IgE binding against C. cladosporioides extracts. Among these 74 sera, 41 (55%) and 38 (51%) showed IgE binding against a 36- and a 20-kDa protein of C. cladosporioides, respectively. Both IgE-reacting components reacted with FUM20, a monoclonal antibody against fungal serine proteases. N-terminal amino acid sequencing results suggest that they are vacuolar serine proteases, and the 20-kDa component is possibly a degraded product of the 36-kDa allergen. A corresponding 5'-truncated 1,425-bp cDNA fragment was isolated. The mature protein after N-terminal processing starts with an N-terminal serine that is the ninth residue encoded by the 5'-truncated cDNA. The protein sequence deduced shares 69-72% sequence identity with Penicillium vacuolar serine proteases and was designated as Cla c 9. The purified 36-kDa Cla c 9 allergen showed proteolytic activity with peptide Z-Ala-Ala-Leu-pNA as substrate. IgE cross-reactivity was detected between the purified Cla c 9 and serine protease allergens from Aspergillusfumigatus and Penicillium chrysogenum.
assistant
We identified a vacuolar serine protease as a major allergen of C. cladosporioides (Cla c 9) and a major pan-allergen of prevalent airborne fungi. IgE cross-reactivity among these highly conserved serine protease pan-fungal allergens was also detectable. Final Decision: yes