Digestion of peanut allergens Ara h 1, Ara h 2, Ara h 3, and Ara h 6: A comparative in vitro study and partial characterization of digestion-resistant peptides

作者：Koppelman Stef J^*; Hefle Sue L; Taylor Steve L; de Jong Govardus A H

来源：Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 2010, 54(12): 1711-1721.

DOI：10.1002/mnfr.201000011

• Allergen
• Digestion
• Peanut
• Pepsin
• Trypsin

Scope: There are differences in stability to pepsin between the major allergens in peanut; however, data are from different reports using different digestion models. This study provides a comprehensive comparison of the digestibility of the major peanut allergens.
Methods and results: Peanut allergens Ara h 1, Ara h 2, Ara h 3 and Ara h 6 were incubated with pepsin to mimic the effect of gastric digestion. Samples were analyzed using SDS-PAGE. To further investigate resistance to digestion, Ara h 2 was additionally subjected to digestion with trypsin and residual peptides were characterized. Ara h 1 and Ara h 3 were rapidly hydrolyzed by pepsin. On the contrary, Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 were resistant to pepsin digestion, even at very high concentrations of pepsin. In fact, limited proteolysis could only be demonstrated by SDS-PAGE performed under reducing conditions, indicating an important role for the disulfide bridges in maintaining the quaternary structure of Ara h 2 and Ara h 6. Trypsin digestion of Ara h 2 similarly resulted in large residual peptides and these were identified.
Conclusion: Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 are considerably more stable towards digestion than Ara h 1 and Ara h 3.

• 出版日期2010-12