Publications by authors named "J C Vidal-Quist"
The digestive physiology of house dust mites (HDMs) is particularly relevant for their allergenicity since many of their allergens participate in digestion and are excreted into faecal pellets, a main source of exposure for allergic subjects. To gain insight into the mite dietary digestion, the genome of the HDM Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus was screened for genes encoding peptidases (n = 320), glycosylases (n = 77), lipases and esterases (n = 320), peptidase inhibitors (n = 65) and allergen-related proteins (n = 52). Basal gene expression and transcriptional responses of mites to dietary cystatin A, a cysteine endopeptidase inhibitor with previously shown antinutritional effect on mites, were analysed by RNAseq.
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- * Researchers used high-quality genome data and RNA sequencing to analyze gene expression changes between virus-infected and control mite colonies, revealing a significant transcriptional response related to immunity and stress but not major allergen levels.
- * Although some allergens showed changes in expression, overall, viral infection did not significantly alter the allergenic performance of mite extracts, suggesting they remain suitable for allergy diagnoses.
The digestive physiology of house dust mites (HDM) is of interest to understand their allergenicity towards humans since many of their allergens are digestive enzymes and/or are excreted into airborne fecal pellets. The aim of this study is to provide insight on the biochemical basis of proteolytic digestion in Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, the most widespread HDM species. First, assays using non-specific protein substrates on purified fecal and body extracts determined that body-associated activity is almost exclusively dependent on cysteine proteases, and specifically on major allergen Der p 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Allergy to house dust mites (HDM), the most important source of indoor allergens worldwide, is diagnosed and treated using natural extracts from cultures that can contain immunoactive components from the HDM microbiome, including mite-infecting viruses. This study aimed to contribute to the discovery and characterization of RNA viruses from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, followed by their detection in different mite-derived sources.
Methods: Viruses were assembled after in silico metatranscriptomic analysis of D.