1. Allergenicity assessment of the edible cricket Acheta domesticus in terms of thermal and gastrointestinal processing and IgE cross-reactivity with shrimp.
- Author
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De Marchi L, Mainente F, Leonardi M, Scheurer S, Wangorsch A, Mahler V, Pilolli R, Sorio D, and Zoccatelli G
- Subjects
- Animals, Calcium-Binding Proteins immunology, Cross Reactions, Digestion, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Food Handling, Gryllidae chemistry, Humans, Immunoblotting, Tropomyosin immunology, Allergens analysis, Food Hypersensitivity, Gryllidae immunology, Immunoglobulin E analysis, Penaeidae chemistry, Shellfish analysis
- Abstract
The allergenic potency of the cricket Acheta domesticus, a promising edible insect, has never been assessed. This work aims to study the immunoreactivity of Acheta domesticus, and its cross-reactivity with the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, assessing the effect of cooking and gastrointestinal digestion on their allergenic properties. Different cricket proteins were detected by immunoblotting with shrimp-allergic patients' sera. Tropomyosin was identified as the most relevant IgE-binding protein, and its cross-reactivity with shrimp tropomyosin was demonstrated by ELISA. While shrimp tropomyosin showed scarce stability to gastric digestion, cricket tropomyosin withstood the whole digestion process. The sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein, specifically detected in shrimp, showed exceptional stability to gastrointestinal digestion. IgE-binding proteins in a model of enriched baked products were partially protected from proteolysis. In conclusion, the ingestion of A. domesticus proteins poses serious concerns to the Crustacean-allergic population. The high stability of tropomyosin may represent a risk of primary sensitization and clinical cross-reactivity., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2021
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