The Allergen Profile of Two Edible Insect Species—Acheta domesticus and Hermetia illucens

The Allergen Profile of Two Edible Insect Species—Acheta domesticus and Hermetia illucens

Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

10.1002/mnfr.202300811

https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.202300811

Shaymaviswanathan Karnaneedi, Elecia B. Johnston, Utpal Bose, Angéla Juhász, James A. Broadbent, Thimo Ruethers, Emily M. Jerry, Sandip D. Kamath, Vachiranee Limviphuvadh, Sally Stockwell, Keren Byrne, Dean Clarke, Michelle L. Colgrave, Sebastian Maurer‐Stroh, Andreas L. Lopata

Food allergen

18 July 2024

Karnaneedi, S., Johnston, E. B., Bose, U., Juhász, A., Broadbent, J. A., Ruethers, T., Jerry, E. M., Kamath, S. D., Limviphuvadh, V., Stockwell, S., Byrne, K., Clarke, D., Colgrave, M. L., Maurer‐Stroh, S., & Lopata, A. L. (2024). The Allergen Profile of Two Edible Insect Species—Acheta domesticus and Hermetia illucens. Molecular Nutrition Food Research, 68(16). Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.202300811

Edible insect proteins are increasingly introduced as an alternative sustainable food source to address the world's need to feed the growing population. Tropomyosin is the main insect allergen; however, additional potential allergens are not well characterized and the impact of extraction procedures on immunological reactivity is unknown.Methods and resultsProteins from different commercial food products derived from cricket (Acheta domesticus) and black soldier fly (BSF) (Hermetia illucens) are extracted using five different extraction buffers. The proteins are analyzed by SDS‐PAGE and immunoblotting using allergen‐specific antibodies and crustacean allergic patient sera. IgE binding bands are analyzed by mass spectrometry as well as the complete allergen profile of all 30 extracts. Urea‐based buffers are most efficient in extracting insect allergens. Shrimp‐specific antibody cross‐reactivity to tropomyosin from cricket and BSF indicates high sequence and structural similarity between shrimp and insects. Additional unique allergens are identified in both species, including hemocyanin, vitellogenin, HSP20, apolipophorin‐III, and chitin‐binding protein.ConclusionsIdentifying potential allergenic proteins and their isoforms in cricket and BSF requires specific extraction approaches using urea‐based methods. While tropomyosin is the most abundant and immunoreactive allergen, seven unique allergens are identified, highlighting the need for insect species‐specific allergen detection in food products.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This research / project is supported by the 1st Singapore-Australia Bilateral Program on Innovations in Food for Precision Health, 2019 - NA
Grant Reference no. : SG-AUS2019_191D4

© 2024 The Author(s). Molecular Nutrition & Food Research published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/22194

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