Globally, house dust mites (HDM) are one of the main sources of allergens causing Type I allergy, which has a high risk of progressing into a severe disabling disease manifestation such as allergic asthma. The strong protease activities of a number of these allergens are thought to be involved in several steps of the pathophysiology of this allergic disease. It has been a common notion that protease activity may be one of the properties that confers allergenicity to proteins. In this review we summarize and discuss the roles of the different HDM proteases in the development of Type I allergy.
Keywords: Der p 1; allergen; house dust mite; protease.