Vaccination for birch pollen allergy: Induction of affinity-matured or blocking IgG antibodies does not account for the reduced binding of IgE to Bet v 1

Specific allergy vaccination (SAV) is associated with increased levels of allergen specific IgG in serum. It is not clear, however, to what extent qualitative changes in allergen binding to IgG may be induced as well. We therefore analyzed the binding of the major allergen in pollen of birch (Betula verrucosa) (Bet v 1), the major allergen in birch pollen, to serum IgG and IgE, separately and in competition. Sera from six birch pollen-allergic patients were obtained before and after 5 years of SAV, and binding was assessed with ¹²⁵I-Bet v 1. Before SAV, IgG bound more than eight times the amount of Bet v 1 compared with IgE, and together they accounted for more than 85% of the serum binding capacity. While SAV induced minimal changes in IgE binding, the IgG binding capacities increased 6-32 times. In contrast, the binding avidities (K_d 28-40pM) changed less than 20%, pre- and post-SAV IgG provided similar inhibition of Bet v 1 binding to IgE at equimolar levels, and cross inhibition studies between IgG and IgE showed low inter-individual differences. Following SAV, all sera reduced Bet v 1 binding to CD23⁺ cells, correlating with reduced binding of Bet v 1 to IgE (P<0.001). These results show that high avidity IgG of low inter-individual difference in Bet v 1 binding quality is the dominant binding factor of Bet v 1 in sera of birch pollen-allergic patients, and that SAV-induced inhibition of binding of Bet v 1 to IgE can be explained mainly or solely by increased amounts of IgG.