Abstract
BackgroundFood allergy has been reported increasingly around the world during the past several decades. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a common herpesvirus with high infection rate, is now suspected to be a risk or protective factor in food allergy. The aim of the study was to investigate the possible role of EBV infection in IgE-mediated food allergy.Methods34 patients with an egg allergy and 34 healthy controls participated in this study. Egg allergy was confirmed by open-food challenge. Serum anti-viral capsid antigen (VCA), anti-Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA-1) IgG and egg specific (yolk and white)-IgE levels were evaluated by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). At the same time, EBV DNA as well as viral miRNAs in these samples was quantified by real-time PCR.ResultsThe results showed that serum anti EBNA-1 IgG and two viral miRNAs (miR-BART1-5p and miR-BART7) were highly expressed in patients with egg allergy compared with healthy controls (p < 0.05, < 0.001 and < 0.01, respectively). Moreover, the expressions of anti EBNA-1 specific IgG, miR-BART1-5p and miR-BART7 positively correlated with the level of egg-specific IgE (p < 0.05, < 0.01 and < 0.01, respectively). The differences in anti VCA IgG concentration and EBV DNA copy number between the allergy patients and control individuals were not statistically significant.ConclusionsThe high expression of EBV-specific antibody and miRNAs indicated that EBV infection might play a promoting role in IgE-mediated egg food allergy, and viral miRNAs-related immunomodulatory pathway was likely involved in this allergy process.
Highlights
Food allergy has been reported increasingly around the world during the past several decades
The aim of this study is to explore the possible correlation between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and IgE-mediated egg-specific food allergy in Chinese adults
EBV infection in the allergic and controls The concentrations of anti-viral capsid antigen (VCA) and anti-Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA-1) specific IgG antibodies are summarized as median (Figure 1A and Table 1 and Additional file 1: Table S1)
Summary
Food allergy has been reported increasingly around the world during the past several decades. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a common herpesvirus with high infection rate, is suspected to be a risk or protective factor in food allergy. The aim of the study was to investigate the possible role of EBV infection in IgE-mediated food allergy. Because there is no effective treatment to prevent or ease allergy reactions currently, identification of possible risk factors for FA is of great clinical importance. Considering egg protein is one of the most common food allergens around the world [6,7], current study recruited patients with egg specific FA. EBV viral miRNAs are a set of miRNAs derived from EBV genome The expression of these miRNAs is often associated with various disease states triggered by viral infections [8,9].
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