Trlin HJF, Bennie RZ, Ogilvie OJ, Oh JK, Jin A, et al.
Journal of agricultural and food chemistry ā¢
Cellular agriculture combines cell culture and tissue engineering techniques to produce animal-derived food products. While cell culture is routinely reported in the medical literature to affect protein expression in primary mammalian cells, the impact of these changes has yet to be established in the context of food production and allergenicity. To address this, primary bovine myoblasts were cultured for short-, medium-, and long-durations and then compared to native tissue. Proteomic and immunoblotting analyses identified cumulative changes at increasing passage numbers, with significant differences between cultured cells and native tissue. While allergens Bos d 6 and Bos d 13 were less abundant in cultured cells, an increase in immunoglobulin E interactions with GalĪ±1-3GalĪ²1-4GlcNAc-R (Ī±-Gal) in cultured cells indicates that Ī±-Gal may be more abundant. Results demonstrate that the relative abundance of allergens in cultivated beef products will likely differ from that of traditional meat, highlighting a need for further investigation.
The anaphylaxis response is frequently associated with food allergies, representing a significant public health hazard. Recently, exposure to tick bites and production of specific IgE against Ī±-galactosyl (Ī±-Gal)-containing epitopes has been correlated to red meat allergy. However, this association and the source of terminal, non-reducing Ī±-Gal-containing epitopes have not previously been established in Brazil. Here, we employed the Ī±-1,3-galactosyltransferase knockout mouse (Ī±1,3-GalT-KO) model and bacteriophage QĪ²-virus like particles (QĪ²-VLPs) displaying GalĪ±1,3GalĪ²1,4GlcNAc (GalĪ±3LN) epitopes to investigate the presence of Ī±-Gal-containing epitopes in the saliva of Amblyomma sculptum, a species of the Amblyomma cajennense complex, which represents the main tick that infests humans in Brazil. We confirmed that the Ī±-1,3-galactosyltransferase knockout animals produce significant levels of anti-Ī±-Gal antibodies against the GalĪ±1,3GalĪ²1,4GlcNAc epitopes displayed on QĪ²-virus like particles. The injection of A. sculptum saliva or exposure to feeding ticks was also found to induce both IgG and IgE anti-Ī±-Gal antibodies in Ī±-1,3-galactosyltransferase knockout mice, thus indicating the presence of Ī±-Gal-containing epitopes in the tick saliva. The presence of Ī±-Gal-containing epitopes was confirmed by ELISA and immunoblotting following removal of terminal Ī±-Gal epitopes by Ī±-galactosidase treatment. These results suggest for the first known time that bites from the A. sculptum tick may be associated with the unknown etiology of allergic reactions to red meat in Brazil.
Yilmaz B, Portugal S, Tran TM, Gozzelino R, Ramos S, et al.
Cell ā¢
Glycosylation processes are under high natural selection pressure, presumably because these can modulate resistance to infection. Here, we asked whether inactivation of the UDP-galactose:Ī²-galactoside-Ī±1-3-galactosyltransferase (Ī±1,3GT) gene, which ablated the expression of the GalĪ±1-3GalĪ²1-4GlcNAc-R (Ī±-gal) glycan and allowed for the production of anti-Ī±-gal antibodies (Abs) in humans, confers protection against Plasmodium spp. infection, the causative agent of malaria and a major driving force in human evolution. We demonstrate that both Plasmodium spp. and the human gut pathobiont E. coli O86:B7 express Ī±-gal and that anti-Ī±-gal Abs are associated with protection against malaria transmission in humans as well as in Ī±1,3GT-deficient mice, which produce protective anti-Ī±-gal Abs when colonized by E. coli O86:B7. Anti-Ī±-gal Abs target Plasmodium sporozoites for complement-mediated cytotoxicity in the skin, immediately after inoculation by Anopheles mosquitoes. Vaccination against Ī±-gal confers sterile protection against malaria in mice, suggesting that a similar approach may reduce malaria transmission in humans.
