Immunoreactive proteins of Capsicum-based spices as a threat to human health: mass spectrometry analysis and in silico mapping

The identification of allergenicity of paprika proteins is important, especially those that could trigger a severe allergic reaction in patients with an equivocal clinical picture. In this study two types of protein extracts extracted from 3 different paprika spices were immunoblotted with the sera of patients displaying severe allergic symptoms, presumably to paprika. Proteins from the IgE-reactive bands obtained were subjected to LC-MS/MS identification and then to in silico analysis to verify their allergenicity and characterise their proinflammatory activity using online tools.