Bile Salts Enhance the Susceptibility of the Allergenic Lipid Transfer Protein from Peach, Pru p 3 to in vitro gastrointestinal digestion

Sensitisation to the lipid transfer protein Pru p 3 is associated with severe allergic reactions to peach, the proteins stability being thought to play a role in its allergenicity. Lipid binding increases susceptibility of Pru p 3 to digestion and so the impact of bile salts on the in vitro gastrointestinal digestibility of Pru p 3 was investigated and digestion products mapped by SDS PAGE and mass spectrometry. Bile salts enhanced the digestibility of Prup3 resulting in an ensemble of around 100 peptides spanning the proteins sequence which were linked by disulphide bonds into structures of ~5-6kDa. IgE binding studies with a serum panel from peach allergic subjects showed digestion reduced, but did not abolish, the IgE reactivity of Pru p 3. These data show the importance of including bile salts in in vitro digestion systems and emphasise the need to profile of digestion in a manner that allows identification of immunologically relevant disulphide-linked peptide aggregates.