Identification of Mango Cross-Reactive Allergens and Cross-Reactive Linear Epitopes Using Serum from Patients with Mango Allergy

Although mango is not classified among the eight major allergenic foods reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the rising global and domestic con-sumption of mango has been accompanied by a growing number of reported cases of mango allergy. Currently, there are limited reports on cross-reactive allergens and cross-reactive linear epitopes in mango. This study first employed BLAST to predict potential cross-reactive allergens between mango allergens and other food allergens. Subsequently, cross-reactive allergens were identified using sera from mango-allergic patients. Furthermore, similar sequences of the identified cross-reactive allergens were predicted by BLAST. These similar sequences were then synthesized by solid-phase peptide synthesis method. Finally, the cross-reactive linear epitopes were determined by assessing their IgE-binding capacity using serum IgE from the same patient cohort. The results demonstrated that sera from mango-allergic patients exhibited cross-reactivity with peanut, wheat, cashew, pistachio, and hazelnut, particularly, with cross-reactivity to wheat and hazelnut being unreported previously. Novel cross-reactive linear epitopes were identified as follows: the AA80-88 sequence of mango chitinase with the AA37-45 sequence of wheat Tri a 27; the AA15-22 sequence of mango profilin with the AA65-72 sequence of pistachio Pis v 1. Furthermore, multiple cross-reactive epitopes were mapped between mango profilin and peanut Ara h 5, corresponding to the sequences AA31-51/AA31-50, AA50-65/AA52-65, AA76-96/AA76-96, and AA103-117/AA104-117, respectively.