Abstract
Apple allergy belongs to the most prevalent fruit allergies which in North and Central Europe is mainly attributed to cross-reaction between Bet v 1 allergen from birch pollen and Mal d 1 major apple allergen. For a long time, patients observed symptoms of unequal severity after consumption of different apple cultivars. This led scientific community to search for the basis of the cultivar-specific allergenicity. According to several studies, the amount of Mal d 1 allergen plays an important role. Currently, notable attention is mainly concentrated on genetic variability as the primary source of different allergenic potential. Mal d 1 gene family is a large family of gene isoforms and their variants differing in the primary sequence. These sequence alternations may cause changes in protein structure and potentially affect the binding capacity to IgE and thus the allergenic potential. Among many methods available to analyze genetic variability, restriction fragment length polymorphism is simple technique suitable to analyze variability of Mal d 1 allergen. This paper aims to provide a brief overview of a possible approach of interlinking genomic data (e.g. as by RFLP profiles) and clinically proven apple allergenicity.
Highlights
Apple allergy belongs to the most prevalent fruit allergies which in North and Central Europe is mainly attributed to cross-reaction between Bet v 1 allergen from birch pollen and Mal d 1 major apple allergen
Syndrom of oral allergy is invoked by various plant proteins, especially PR-protein superfamily cross-reacting with aeroallergens
Since some of the Mal d 1 genes have alleles coding for different isoforms, apple cultivars can besides quantity differ in the composition of Mal d 1 protein (Son et al, 1999; Gao et al, 2008)
Summary
The tendency of rising revelance of food allergies is becoming more and more pronounced. The highest prevalence of food allergy (FA) has Australia (10% of infants and 6-10 % for all citizens), followed by Europe (from 3% to more than 10%) and the United States (from 6% to more than 10%) in past 10 years and a lot of data for many countries are unknown (Renz et al, 2018). The prevalence of food allergy has a rapidly increasing tendency, especially for infants and children, mainly in regions with high industrial activity (Cochrane et al, 2009). Worldwide data showed that 2.2%–11.5% of children (0–6) and 0.4%–6.6% of adults perceived a fruit allergy (Zuidmeer et al, 2008). The most remarkable prevalence among Rosaceae fruit is represented by the allergy to apples or peaches and research is widely focused on the species.
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