Abstract
2S albumins are relevant and often major allergens from several tree nuts and seeds, affecting mainly children and young people. The present study aims to assess how the structural features of 2S albumins could affect their immunogenic capacity, which is essential to comprehend the role of these proteins in food allergy. For this purpose, twelve 2S albumins were isolated from their respective extracts by chromatographic methods and identified by MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry. Their molecular and structural characterization was conducted by electrophoretic, spectroscopic and in silico methods, showing that these are small proteins that comprise a wide range of isoelectric points, displaying a general high structure stability to thermal treatment. Despite low amino acid sequence identity, these proteins share structural features, pointing conformational epitopes to explain cross-reactivity between them. Immunoblotting with allergic patients’ sera revealed those possible correlations between evolutionarily distant 2S albumins from different sources. The availability of a well-characterized panel of 2S albumins from plant-derived sources allowed establishing correlations between their structural features and their allergenic potential, including their role in cross-reactivity processes.
Highlights
Foods represent one of the greatest antigenic loads the human immune system must face, tolerance being the normal physiological response
The prevalence of allergic reactions against foods has increased in recent decades, being estimated that 3–4% of the adult population and nearly 5% of children in Western countries suffer any kind of food allergy [1]
We aimed to explore the structural characteristics of 2S albumins and their link with clinical manifestations displayed by allergic patients; we set out to highlight the cross-reactive potential of these allergens due to the availability of a wide panel of well-defined 2S albumins from several plant sources
Summary
Foods represent one of the greatest antigenic loads the human immune system must face, tolerance being the normal physiological response. A significant percentage corresponds to those from plant sources, highlighting the contribution of tree nuts, spices, seeds and fruits since hypersensitivity reactions against them begin at early ages and often persist throughout the life of individuals [2] These foods are known for their benefits to human health, providing a large quantity of beneficial compounds, some of them not available in animal origin food. The development of new tools for food allergy diagnosis and management includes the employment of single isolated well-characterized allergens to identify those able to bind specific IgE (sIgE) from the patients’ serum These diagnostic approaches, known as component resolved diagnosis (CRD), seek for the identification of potential allergenic sources and for the establishment of a correlation between sensitization patterns of patients and the symptoms displayed, in order to obtain a personalized diagnosis [3]
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