Molecular Properties of Plant Food Allergens: A Current Classification into Protein Families

Autor: Michael Hauser, Michael Wallner, Matthias Egger, Nicole Wopfner, Fatima Ferreira, Georg Schmidt
Rok vydání: 2008
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Open Immunology Journal. 1:1-12
ISSN: 1874-2262
DOI: 10.2174/1874226200801010001
Popis: So far the allergen list of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) allergen nomenclature subcommittee comprises 130 plant-derived food allergens. Based on sequence homology these allergens can be classified into only 27 out of 9,000 known protein families according to the Allfam database. These families comprise the prolamin and cupin superfamilies, pathogenesis related proteins, profilins, thaumatin-like proteins, oleosins, expansins, a number of enzymes and protease inhibitors among others. The classification on structural and thus biochemical and functional simi- larities will provide a new outlook on the molecules and might contribute to answer the question about allergenicity of dif- ferent proteins. This will help to define clinical relevant allergenic molecules and explain cross-reactive phenomena be- tween single food allergen sources as well as between food allergens and allergenic molecules of other origins (e.g. pol- len).
Databáze: OpenAIRE