ABSTRACT
Sensitivity to a variety of fungi is known to be a factor in allergic rhinitis, allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS), allergic bronchopulmonary mycoses (ABPMs), hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and asthma. Currently prevalent diagnostic tools and novel diagnostic approaches being developed for hypersensitivity and allergic fungal manifestations are reviewed. Exposure to fungal antigens can elicit both humoral and cellular immune responses. Humoral response to allergenic fungi is polyclonal in nature and is characterized by type I and type III hypersensitivity reactions. AFS is an increasingly recognized form of hypersensitivity disease, reported throughout the world. Allergic syndromes to fungi, mainly A. fumigatus (ABPA) and rarer organisms, such as Penicillium, Candida, Curvularia, Helminthosporium spp., or, reported, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, occurring in asthmatic patients as eosinophilic pneumonia are termed ABPMs. ABPA is one of the well-studied ABPMs, which is an immunological disease and depicts the immune mechanisms similar to that of asthma.
