ABSTRACT
Among the pathological conditions in which chemistry plays an especially important role is contact allergy (Lepoittevin, 1998), and chemical reactions/interactions are involved throughout the biological process that will result in the patient developing delayed hypersensitivity. Thus, the crossing of the cutaneous barrier is mainly controlled by the physicochemical properties of the allergen (molecular volume and lipophilicity). The formation of the hapten-protein complex, which involves the formation of new chemical bonds, is driven by molecular orbital properties. Finally, the recognition between the antigen and the receptors on T lymphocytes can be explained by a discipline undergoing rapid development, that of supramolecular chemistry.
