IgE and monoclonal antibody reactivities to the major shrimp allergen Pen a 1 (tropomyosin) and vertebrate tropomyosins.

Pen a 1, the major shrimp allergen from brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus has been identified as the muscle protein tropomyosin. To identify Pen a 1 IgE binding sites, the reactivities of Pen a 1-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and shrimp-allergic subjects' IgE to shrimp and homologous mammalian tropomyosins were analyzed. Pen a 1, purified by preparative SDS-PAGE and commercially obtained porcine, bovine and rabbit tropomyosin were cleaved by CNBr or digested by endoproteinases Lys-C, Glu-C, trypsin, Arg-C and chymotrypsin. Reactivities of Pen a 1-specific mAbs and IgE to the resulting peptides were analyzed by dot blot and immunoblotting. The dot blot analysis showed that mAbs and IgE antibodies did not react with any of the mammalian tropomyosins. The immunoblot analysis showed that all Pen a 1 digests bound IgE or mAbs. However, not all peptides in each digest possessed an IgE binding site. IgE binding intensity and frequency varied by subject and peptide digest. IgE and mAb reactivity patterns were similar but no mAb reproduced the IgE binding patterns indicating that subject' IgE bound some epitopes that were not recognized by the Pen a 1-specific mAbs. These studies suggest that IgE-binding epitopes are restricted to certain parts of the Pen a 1 molecule, Pen a 1 may have several similar epitopes, and that Pen a 1 epitopes do not appear to be located in the highly homologous parts of the tropomyosin molecule.