Can commercial peanut assay kits detect peanut allergens?

Peanut is the food group mostly associated with severe and fatal allergic reactions. In the United States, more than 90% of peanut-allergic individuals' serum IgE recognized peanut proteins Ara h 1 and Ara h 2, thus establishing these proteins as major peanut allergens. The amount of Ara h 1 an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of AOAC International 2004-11, Vol.87 (6), p.1480-1485
Main Authors: Nogueira, M.C.L, McDonald, R, Westphal, C, Yeung, J.M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
2S Albumins, Plant
allergens
Allergens - analysis
Antigens, Plant
Arachis - adverse effects
Arachis - chemistry
denaturation
Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
food allergens
Food Handling
Glycoproteins - analysis
heat treatment
Hot Temperature
Indicators and Reagents
peanuts
Plant Proteins
plant source protein
Reagent Kits, Diagnostic
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Summary:Peanut is the food group mostly associated with severe and fatal allergic reactions. In the United States, more than 90% of peanut-allergic individuals' serum IgE recognized peanut proteins Ara h 1 and Ara h 2, thus establishing these proteins as major peanut allergens. The amount of Ara h 1 and Ara h 2 in 3 varieties of peanut cultivars that are commonly processed in the industrialized countries was determined to be 12-16 and 6-9%, respectively. Current commercial peanut test kits use polyclonal peanut-specific antibodies to detect soluble or buffer extractable peanut proteins. Because the 2 major peanut allergens Ara h 1 and Ara h 2 are isolated from soluble peanut proteins, it is generally assumed that these commercial kits can detect peanut allergens, although none of these kits claims to detect peanut allergen. This study showed for the first time that the peanut test kits could, in fact, detect major peanut allergens Ara h 1 and Ara h 2 in both native or heat-denatured structures; therefore, these kits qualified to be classified as peanut allergen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.
ISSN:1060-3271
1944-7922