Structural and Immunologic Properties of the Major Soybean Allergen Gly m 4 Causing Anaphylaxis

Gly m 4 is the major soybean allergen, causing birch pollen cross allergic reactions. In some cases, Gly m 4-mediated anaphylaxis takes place, but the causative factors are still unknown. Here, we studied the structural and immunologic properties of Gly m 4 to shed light on this phenomenon. We showed that Gly m 4 retained its structure and IgE-binding capacity after heating. Gly m 4 was cleaved slowly under nonoptimal gastric conditions mimicking duodenal digestion, and IgE from the sera of allergic patients interacted with the intact allergen rather than with its proteolytic fragments. Similar peptide clusters of Bet v 1 and Gly m 4 were formed during allergen endolysosomal degradation in vitro, but their sequence identity was insignificant. Animal polyclonal anti-Gly m 4 and anti-Bet v 1 IgG weakly cross-reacted with Bet v 1 and Gly m 4, respectively. Thus, we supposed that not only conserved epitopes elicited cross-reactivity with Bet v 1, but also variable epitopes were present in the Gly m 4 structure. Our data suggests that consumption of moderately processed soybean-based drinks may lead to the neutralizing of gastric pH as a result of which intact Gly m 4 can reach the human intestine and cause IgE-mediated system allergic reactions.