Tomato allergens investigated

Allergy to tomato is significant in populations where high volumes of the fruit are consumed. It has been estimated that around 6.5% of the Mediterranean population are sensitised to tomato. This has prompted researchers in Spain to conduct investigations to identify and characterise the allergens in tomato, leading to two recent publications in this area.

One paper describes the work of López-Matas and co-workers in which they characterise the allergenic profile of six commonly-ingested varieties of tomato: Rama, Rambo, Canario, Kumato, Pera and Raf. The protein profile and allergen quantification of the six varieties showed differences in the allergen composition, with higher specific IgE values obtained for the Kumato variety.

Of the 191 individuals recruited to the study, almost 42% reported symptoms, primarily oral, after touching or ingesting the tomato.

Another paper was also recently published by López-Matas and co-workers describing their discovery of a new tomato allergen, 'Acidic ribosomal protein 60S' (ARP60S), adding to the three tomato allergens (Lyc e 1, Lyc e 2 and Lyc e 3) that have previously been characterised. Investigations into the new tomato allergen so far have shown it shares high homology with previously-described allergens in almond and moulds.

References:

Study 1: López-Matas, et al. 2011. Journal of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Vol.106(3). pp. 230-238. DOI:10.1016/j.anai.2010.11.022

Study 2: López-Matas, et al. 2011. Food Chemistry Vol 127(2). pp. 638-640. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.12.145