Impacts of Global Climate Change on Plant Food Allergens and Related Health Issues

Abstract

ISEE-0395 Background and Objective: Climate change has had, and will continue to have, many significant impacts on human health. One aspect of human health that has been highlighted in recent years as being adversely impacted by climate change is allergic disease. Much of this attention has been focussed on asthma, partly due to there now being many studies of climate change impacts on aeroallergens, particularly pollen. Of particular note is a study demonstrating significant increases in the major allergen content of ragweed pollen as a function of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. The objective of this research is to examine the potential for climate change to have adverse impacts on the allergenicity of important plant food allergens. Methods: In the absence of any previous research on climate change and plant food allergens specifically, research on the impacts of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and/or temperature on other attributes of plant food allergen species were reviewed. In addition to this, experimental work at Macquarie University is examining the impacts of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration on peanut allergenicity. Results: The results of previous research and preliminary results from this research suggest there is potential for climate change to have an impact on the allergenicity of plant food allergens such as peanut. With respect to this food in particular, results indicate that plants grown in elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration show, amongst other things, significantly (P = 0.0001) increased pod and seed numbers per plant compared to plants grown at ambient concentration. Conclusion: Impacts of climate change on plant food allergens could have considerable impacts on associated allergic diseases, and pose a threat to global health. There is a great need for further research on this topic.