Study of the effect of instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) treatment on IgE-reactive legume-protein patterns by electrophoresis and immunoblot

Détente Instantanée Contrôlée (DIC) technology was used to reduce immunoglobulin E (IgE) reactivity of legume proteins. Soybean, roasted peanut, chickpea and lentil seeds were treated at three or six bars for 60 or 180s. The effect of this treatment on the IgE-binding pattern of the legume proteins – separated by sodium-dodecyl-sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis – was monitored by five individual paediatric legume allergic and – two individual negative control human sera. A highly cross-reactive legume positive serum was selected for the two-dimensional electrophoreses immunoblots to compare the IgE reactive protein patterns, before and after the DIC treatment. The number of the identified IgE reactive spots was highly reduced for soybean (0/7) and chickpea (2/7), and moderately reduced for lentil (4/7) when the seeds were treated at a higher pressure (6 bar) and for a longer time (180 s), but this treatment was not effective for roasted peanut (6/8) where the intensity of the IgE reactive resistant spots were even stronger.