Background:

Several clinical studies have shown that the allergy to nuts has increased significantly in recent years. Almond allergy is one of the most significant allergies in several countries. For this reason, we were interested in studying almond sensitivity, and especially one of its allergens: amandin.

Method:

This work is based on a sample of sera from 252 patients. The samples were collected Ibn Elkhatib University Hospital Center and several private medical laboratories in Fez, Morocco. We also evaluated the sensitivity and immunoreactivity of human IgE and rabbit IgG to almonds variety of Prunus dulcis and investigated the effect of food processing (heat and/or enzymatic hydrolysis by pepsin) on this sensitivity. In addition molecular profile of amandin was studied.

Results:

Reported allergy revealed that 6.5% of patients had an allergy to egg, whereas 2.5, 0.4, 7.8, 3.9, 2.5 and 2.2% of patients were allergic to peanut, wheat flour, fish, strawberry, milk and almond respectively. The evaluation of specific IgE showed that the study population is sensitive to the species Prunus dulcis. The study of the variation of allergenicity of almond under the effect of the temperature and the enzymatic hydrolysis showed an important decrease for the recognition of proteins by human IgE. However, enzymatic hydrolysis modifies the same way the binding of human IgE to almond inducing a reduction of the allergenicity. The molecular characterization of the allergens indicated a major reactivity to Pru du 6 (amandin). This reactivity is highly reduced by treatments, especially the enzymatic one.

Conclusion:

Almond allergy could be reduced by heat treatment or enzymatic hydrolysis.

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