MBT: The Cause of Latex Allergy

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development , Latex/Rubber Allergies on July 30, 2007

Though latex gloves are widely used in laboratories, some people who wear them have allergic reactions. Do you have allergies to latex?

Now, researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) and Portland State University, in Oregon found the ingredient in manufacturing latex that causes the allergic contact dermatitis (ACD).

The culprit is called 2-mercaptobenzothiazole, or MBT.

According to Paul D. Siegel, a bioorganic chemistry team leader at NIOSH:

Compounds such as MBT are too small to provoke an allergic response on their own, but they can bind to proteins, and the resulting complexes can trigger allergy attacks.
Such piggybacking allergens are called haptens, and the binding process is known as haptenation. A direct haptenation mechanism "only explains about 35-40% of the known chemical allergens. MBT fell into the unexplained group.

The findings will be able to help in the development of treatment for the prevention of ACD.

Find more details from the full report.