CASO CLINICO   

La Rivista Italiana della Medicina di Laboratorio 2021 Dicembre;17(4):258-60

DOI: 10.23736/S1825-859X.22.00131-1

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Can cholesterol metabolism and prostate function be relevant co-factors in Can f 5-related human seminal plasma allergy?

Marcello MAZZOLINI ¹ ✉, Gaia DELEONARDI ², Tania SILVESTRI ², Fortuna SCAMARDELLA ², Rita MANCINI ²

¹ Allergy and Clinical Immunology School, Maggiore Hospital, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; ² LUM, AUSL of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Human seminal plasma allergy (HSPA) is a rare condition referred as hypersensitization to the non-spermatozoa part of semen. The mechanism involved is usually IgE-mediated. Clinical presentation is often non-specific and age of onset it’s widely variable. Can f 5 is a recently discovered major allergen for respiratory sensitization resulted to be a prostatic kallikrein that cross-reacts with prostatic specific antigen (PSA). Risk factors have been hypothesized based on single case reports. In the case we are reporting the only known lifestyle or clinical modification other than the adoption of a male dog was the patient’s partner taking ezetimibe for hypercholesterolemia. The symptoms disappeared when the partner introduced a statin in combination with ezetimibe. Therapy with ezetimibe was not suspended and so it was not demonstrated that the drug assumption was related with the symptoms. In one case in literature symptoms have been reported after the woman’s partner underwent a partial prostatectomy. One of the factors that elicited our clinical case may be correlated to cholesterol metabolism and prostate function; lipid disorders and prostatic hyperplasia being very common their correlation is still not completely understood.

KEY WORDS: Allergy and immunology; Semen; Antigens; Cholesterol