Cienciaes.com: Food allergies caused by plants. We spoke with Araceli Díaz Perales. 1

2021-10-17 21:10:49

Something everyday for most like eating sunflower seeds, peanuts or a peach can have devastating effects on some people: inflammation, itching, colic, diarrhea, etc. They are people whose immune system identifies some of the existing molecules in food as enemies and, upon ingestion, reacts with all available weapons as if it were the invasion of a pathogenic microorganism. This is how food allergies manifest themselves, a fascinating topic that Araceli Díaz Perales, Professor of the Department of Biotechnology and Plant Biology and Principal Investigator of the Allergens Laboratory at the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics, talks about today.

Araceli Díaz investigates food allergies caused by plants and searches in them for the molecular basis that causes the disproportionate and abnormal reaction of the cells of the immune system when these substances come into contact with the mucous membranes or the digestive system of sensitive people. Studying allergies is complicated because, as Araceli comments during the interview, “patients do not follow a pattern, different people are sensitive to different foods, and even that sensitivity varies with culture.” Thus, depending on culinary customs and the foods used in them, people are more sensitive to some substances than others. In Spain, for example, the most common food allergy is to peach, in Mexico it is to corn, and in each place there is a prevalent food that arouses more allergies. However, the allergic reaction is not due to the fruit as a whole but to certain molecules it contains, generically called “allergens”.

An allergen is a molecule or a part of a molecule that has been erroneously identified by the patient’s immune system as harmful, although, in fact, it is not. By consuming that allergen, certain cells of the immune system that contain antibodies against it react and sound the alarm. This reaction can be very diverse depending on the person. For some, contact with the allergen is enough for them to cause swelling or itching in a few minutes that extends from the area of ​​contact, others, on the other hand, can ingest the vegetable that transports the allergen and show delayed symptoms for hours or even one day later. Since allergies have a molecular basis, our guest and her Plant Allergens Group are investigating how to identify allergens, and from them, the fragments of molecules that are erroneously recognized by the patient’s immune system.

The research uses the techniques provided by Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Immunology to unravel and characterize the molecular mechanisms involved in the allergic response. Given the complexity of reactions and molecules that may be involved, the support of computational methods is necessary to build three-dimensional models of the proteins involved and perform simulations to explore the chemical reactions that take place during the allergic process. These investigations have as objective the development of new diagnostic methods through the generation of allergen microarrays and the design of new strategies for the treatment of allergies through the production of hypoallergenic forms.

I invite you to listen to Araceli Díaz Perales, Professor of the Department of Biotechnology and Plant Biology and Principal Investigator of the Allergens Laboratory at the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (UPM – INDIA ).