Vespid allergy and Asian giant hornet
Question:
5/5/2020
Does anyone know what the major allergens are for the Asian Giant Hornet? I am looking specifically for cross reactivity with the other vespids to know if venom immunotherapy would provide any protection.
Answer:
It is unclear if you have a patient who had a systemic reaction to this hornet and whether you have performed any testing for vespids that are indigenous to the United States. As you can imagine, there is very little information on this topic in the literature. I found a website, www.uniprot.org, which provides a list of proteins found in the venom of the Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa mandarinia). It states that allergen 5 (aka Antigen 5 or Vesp m 5) has partial (50%) sequence identity with Venom allergen 5 found in yellow jacket, yellow hornet and bald-faced hornet. Based upon the limited data, there seems to be insufficient evidence that immunotherapy with mixed vespids would offer meaningful clinical protection.
I hope this helps,
Jacqueline A. Pongracic, MD, FAAAAI