Identification of Possibility of Glycyrrhiza uralensis as an Allergen by Protein Analysis

Abstract

Various secondary metabolites derived from plants are useful for humans to preserve their health. For this reason, medical herbs have been consumed universally without deep research about the dangerousness of these substance. However, they can produce unexpected adverse reactions in humans. Among these side effects, allergic reactions involving human immunoglobulin E can occur due to antimicrobial or antibacterial substances in plants. Glycyrrhiza uralensis has been prescribed for the treatment of numerous diseases given its multiple types of pharmaceutical efficacy, including its antimicrobial and antibacterial activities. Therefore, we researched whether Glycyrrhiza uralensis, which has antimicrobial ability, can cause allergic reaction in humans. To test the hypothesis devised here, we conducted proteomic level experiments. We utilized SDS-PAGE using a protein extract of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, with Coomassie blue staining to confirm the protein pattern and western blotting to identify Human IgE binding proteins in Glycyrrhiza uralensis. Among the many candidate sera, these methods detected three positive sera. Moreover, an identified protein section with reactivity associated with Human IgE was analyzed by LC-MS/ MS. Our experimental data provide a basis for testing the possibility of Glycyrrhiza uralensis as an allergen by identifying the reactivity between human Immunoglobulin E and proteins of Glycyrrhiza uralensis.