Allergy information for: Pineapple (Ananas comosus )

Clinical History

• Number of Studies:1-5
• Number of Patients:21-50
• Symptoms:

  Intense itching and urticarial rashes, followed by abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea. 20 of 32 patients presented with shock after eating pineapples (Kabir et al. 1993)

  Asthmatic reactions and gastrointestinal symptoms after ingestion of pineapple (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

Skin Prick Test

• Number of Studies:1-5
• Food/Type of allergen:Bromelain (a purified protease of pineapple) (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979) (Nettis et al. 2001)
• Protocol: (controls, definition of positive etc)Histamine chloride (0.1%) and NaCl (0.9%) were used as positive and negative controls, respectively (Nettis et al. 2001)
• Number of Patients:

  1 (Nettis et al. 2001)

  6 workers sensitized to papain and 60 asthmatics workers not exposed to airborne proteases but probably to these as constituents of foods (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

• Summary of Results:

  SPT for bromelain was positive (Nettis et al. 2001)

  5/6 workers sensitized to papain, and 2/60 showed positive skin tests to bromelain (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

IgE assay (by RAST, CAP etc)

• Number of Studies:0
• Food/Type of allergen:

  Bromelain (a purified protease of pineapple) (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979) .

  Purified recombinant pineaple profilin and pineapple extract prepared as follows: Fresh fruits were cut into short pieces and ground in a mortar under liquid nitrogen to a fine powder. This powder was then added to prechilled 4-hyxdroxy-4-methyl-2-pentanone (–20°C, 1:2 wt/vol) in several portions, and the obtained suspension was homogenized with a spinning blade homogenizer. Chilled acetone (–20°C) was added to a final fruit/solvent ratio of 1:5. After the suspension was stored overnight at –20°C, it was filtrated over a suction filter and washed twice with chilled acetone (–20°C) and once with chilled acetone-diethyl ether (1:1, –20°C). The filter residue was lyophilized. One gram of the obtained acetone powder was extracted for 40 minutes at 4°C with 20 mL of PBS (10 mmol/L potassium phosphate and 150 mmol/L NaCl pH7.4). The suspension was centrifuged for 30 minutes at 20,000g, and the supernatant was filtered through a 1.2-µm membrane (Reindl et al. 2002)

• IgE protocol:RAST (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

  EAST, CAP (Reindl et al. 2002).

• Number of Patients:

  6 workers sensitized to papain and 60 asthmatics workers not exposed to airborne proteases but probably to these as constituents of foods (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

  19 (Reindl et al. 2002).

• Summary of Results:

  5/6 workers sensitized to papain, and 8/60 had positive RAST results to bromelain (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

  10/19 sera reacted with pineapple in the CAP assay and six had a positive result in the pineapple profilin EAST (Reindl et al. 2002).

Immunoblotting

• Immunoblotting separation:Protein extract was separated by means of SDS-PAGE (T = 12.5%, C = 2.7%) under reducing conditions (Reindl et al. 2002)
• Immunoblotting detection method:The separated proteins were transferred onto nitrocellulose membranes by means of semidry blotting. The membrane was blocked with 0.05 mol/L TRIS-HCl, 0.15 mol/L NaCl, and 0.3% Tween-20 (pH 7.4). Cut nitrocellulose strips were incubated overnight in diluted patient serum (1:6.7). Bound IgE was detected with mouse monoclonal anti-human IgE alkaline phosphatase conjugate (1:750) and subsequent staining with 4-nitroblue tetrazolium chloride and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate (Reindl et al. 2002)
• Immunoblotting results:

  IgE binding to the recombinant profilins was observed in 8/19 sera from subjects with suspected pineapple allergy (42%). In the pineapple extract immunoblot 13 sera reacted with proteins ranging from 20 to 50 kda. At least 2 sera reacted only to pineapple profilin (Reindl et al. 2002).

Oral provocation

• Number of Studies:
• Food used and oral provocation vehicle:Fresh Pineapple
• Blind:No
• Number of Patients:

  A 58-year-old worker (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

  32 patients (Kabir et al. 1993)

• Dose response:

  Not described

• Symptoms:

  Asthmatic reactions and gastrointestinal symptoms after ingestion of 190 g pineapple (Baur and Fruhmann, 1979)

  Most of the patients complained of intense itching and urticarial rashes, followed by abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea. 18 patients had an urticarial rash and a flushed face. Although none of the patients were severely dehydrated, 20 patients presented with shock. Their peripheral pulse and blood pressure were low or absent suggesting an anaphylactic reaction (Kabir et al. 1993)

IgE cross-reactivity and Polysensitisation

Other Clinical information

Reviews (0)

References (4)

• Kabir I, Speelman P, Islam A
  Systemic allergic reaction and diarrhoea after pineapple ingestion
  Trop Geogr Med. 45(2):77-9. 1993
  PUBMEDID: 8511816
• Reindl J, Rihs HP, Scheurer S, Wangorsch A, Haustein D, Vieths S
  IgE reactivity to profilin in pollen-sensitized subjects with adverse reactions to banana and pineapple.
  Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 128(2):105-14.. 2002
  PUBMEDID: 12065910
• Baur X, Fruhmann G
  Allergic reactions, including asthma, to the pineapple protease bromelain following occupational exposure
  Clin Allergy. 9(5):443-50. 1979
  PUBMEDID: 498486
• Nettis E, Napoli G, Ferrannini A, Tursi A
  IgE-mediated allergy to bromelain
  Allergy. Mar;56(3):257-8. 2001
  PUBMEDID: 11251415

Biochemical Information for Ana c 1

• Allergen Name:Ana c 1
• Alternatve Allergen Names:
• Allergen Designation:Minor
• Protein Family:Profilin, Pfam PF00235
• Sequence Known?:

  Yes

• Allergen accession No.s:

  Q94JN2:Swissprot: http://ca.expasy.org/cgi-bin/niceprot.pl?Q94JN2

  AF377949; AAK54835.1;

  EMBL / GenBank

• 3D Structure Accession No.:

  None

• Calculated Masses:14229
• Experimental Masses:14-15 kDa
• Oligomeric Masses:
• Allergen epitopes:

  Not determined

• Allergen stability:
  Process, chemical, enzymatic:

  There are only few studies on the stability of profilins most of them on celery profilin. Compared to other allergens, profilin is a moderately stable protein, more resistant than Bet v 1 homologues but less stable than lipid transfer proteins or cross-reactive carbohydrate deteminants of glycoprotein allergens. (Scheurer et al. 2004)

• Nature of main cross-reacting proteins:

  Sequence identity of pineapple profilin with that of many others is high including natural rubber latex (80%), pear (77%), apple (79%), celery (72%), sweet cherry (79%), peanut (78%), birch pollen (71%), timothy grass pollen (77%), tomato profilin. This indicates a very high liklihood of IgE cross-reacting although this has not been demonstrated (Reindl et al. 2002)

• Allergen properties & biological function:

  Pineapple profilin is thought to be an actin-binding protein of the cytoskeleton (Carlsson et al. 1977).

• Allergen purification:The recombinant pineapple profilin has been expressed in E. coli and purified by affinity chromatography using poly-(L)-proline as the solid phase. (Reindl et al. 2002)
• Other biochemical information:

  Inhibition experiments indicated similar IgE reactivity of natural and recombinant allergen (Reindl et al. 2002)

References (3)

• Reindl J, Rihs HP, Scheurer S, Wangorsch A, Haustein D, Vieths S
  IgE reactivity to profilin in pollen-sensitized subjects with adverse reactions to banana and pineapple.
  Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 128(2):105-14.. 2002
  PUBMEDID: 12065910
• Scheurer S, Lauer I, Foetisch K, Moncin MS, Retzek M, Hartz C, Enrique E, Lidholm J, Cistero-Bahima A, Vieths S
  Strong allergenicity of Pru av 3, the lipid transfer protein from cherry, is related to high stability against thermal processing and digestion
  J Allergy Clin Immunol. 114(4):900-7.. 2004
  PUBMEDID: 15480332
• Carlsson L, Nystrom LE, Sundkvist I, Markey F, Lindberg U
  Actin polymerizability is influenced by profilin, a low molecular weight protein in non-muscle cells
  J Mol Biol. 115(3):465-83. 1977
  PUBMEDID: 563468