Lipid ligand binding and membrane interactions of a novel food-derived lipid transfer protein enhance basophil allergic responses.
Jappe U, Behrends J, Schromm AB
Plant Allergens
If you grow lupins or peaches and eat them fresh from the garden, the fats naturally present on the skin or in the seed coat may amplify allergic reactions far beyond what the protein alone would trigger — a detail that matters whether you're harvesting for yourself or sharing with guests.
Plants make small proteins that shuttle fats around inside their cells. Scientists discovered that these same proteins in lupine seeds and peach skin can grab onto fats found in food and in the membranes of gut bacteria. When that happens, immune cells in people with plant-food allergies react much more strongly than they do to the protein alone.
Key Findings
Both the lupine and peach transfer proteins showed a newly identified ability to transport phosphatidylglycerol, a fat found mainly in bacterial cell membranes — a specificity not previously described for these allergens.
Adding any of four different lipids (oleic acid, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, or phosphatidylserine) to the proteins enhanced basophil activation in an allergic patient, meaning fat-bound forms of the protein trigger stronger immune responses.
Both proteins interacted with both neutral and negatively charged membrane-like surfaces, suggesting broad membrane affinity that could affect how the allergens behave in the gut environment.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Proteins in lupine and peach that normally move fats around inside the plant can also bind to fatty molecules from food and gut bacteria, and this binding makes allergic reactions in sensitive people significantly worse.
Abstract Preview
Non-specific (ns) lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) are lipid-binding allergens whose natural ligands are not fully known. To elucidate the function and allergenic relevance of nsLTP-lipid complexes, ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Lupinus, commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet, is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centres of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centres occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. They are widely cultivate...