Background:Food allergies are conducted by a hypersensitive response of the immune system. These allergies are a global concern for the public health. Fish is one of the top eigh more allergenis foods. Consumption of fish is increasing worldwide as it is a healthy meat with high nutritional value. Unfortunately, fish can cause adverse immune-mediate reactions, which affect circa 3% of the world population and about 8% of children (1) and are more likely to occur in countries with high fish consumption. Among other allergens such as enolase and aldolase (2), β-parvalbumin (PV) is considered to be the major fish allergen responsible for most of the IgE-mediated reactions (3, 4). Previous studies showed a reduction in the PV's IgE-binding capacity upon calcium depletion. This was explained by a global-folding rearrangement of the protein structure, affecting major epitope regions. Kobayashi et al. and Permyakov et al. proved that calcium-binding is essential to maintain the parvalbumin stable structure and its IgE-reactivity (5).Currently, there is no cure available for fish allergies with the clinical management of fish allergy solely relying on a strict avoidance diet.
Methods: Gilthead sebream were fed specifically designed 3, 5 and 8% EDTA enriched diets, targeting the PV's non IgE-binding apoform. After 90 days fish were sampled and biological tissues were excised. Proteomics was used to access fish allergens and other differentially expressed proteins characterization and expression in muscle while IgE assays to confirm the lower allergenic potential are conducted in patients with history of fish allergies. Fish welfare and quality of flesh were established with biochemical, texture and sensorial analysis.
Results: Fish welfare and fish performance shows no major impact between diets. Comparative proteomics demonstrated that 3% concentrations of EDTA modulated the expression of a single protein, implicated in the contractile apparatus. This shows that EDTA was able to reduce the IgE-reactivity without affecting the fish muscle metabolism. No accumulation of this compound was found in muscle.
Conclusion: Supplementation with EDTA results in a 50% reduction in IgE-reactivity upon, making it a promisor tool to modulate fish allergenicity and a non-GMO approach to improve safety of aquaculture fish.