Aflatoxins: Implications on Health.

Environmental occurrence of Aspergillus and other fungal spores are hazardous to humans and animals. They cause a broad spectrum of clinical complications. Contamination of aflatoxins in agri-food and feed due to A. flavus and A. parasiticus result in toxicity in humans and animals. Recent advances in aspergillus genomics and aflatoxin management practices are encouraging to tackle the challenges posed by important aspergillus species.

Immunodiagnosis of ABPA.

For the diagnosis of allergic aspergillosis demonstration of specific immune responses to allergens has been accepted as a significant paradigm. Elevated levels of total IgE and Aspergillus fumigatus specific IgE and IgG antibodies are important criteria for diagnosis of ABPA. Although reference antigens or standardized methods are not available, there are a number of relevant recombinant antigens, which have been isolated in recent years. Several techniques have been employed in the demonstration of specific antibodies against antigens of Aspergillus fumigatus in the sera of patients. Of these methods, the widely followed ones are ELISA, radioimmunoassay, Western blot, and agar gel double diffusion. Recently, semi-automated methods have been developed using recombinant allergens to detect circulating antibody against Aspergillus. However, these methods have not been evaluated widely. Here we review the immunodiagnostic methods currently in use for allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.