Sensibilisation of asthmatic patients to extracted antigens from strains of Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger

Potential role of the common food additive manufactured citric acid in eliciting significant inflammatory reactions contributing to serious disease states: A series of four case reports

Citric acid naturally exists in fruits and vegetables. However, it is not the naturally occurring citric acid, but the manufactured citric acid (MCA) that is used extensively as a food and beverage additive. Approximately 99% of the world's production of MCA is carried out using the fungus Aspergillus niger since 1919. Aspergilus niger is a known allergen. The FDA placed MCA under the category of GRAS without any research to substantiate this claim. In 2016, 2.3 million tons of MCA were produced, predominantly in China, and approximately 70% is used as a food or beverage additive. There have been no scientific studies performed to evaluate the safety of MCA when ingested in substantial amounts and with chronic exposure. We present four case reports of patients with a history of significant and repetitive inflammatory reactions including respiratory symptoms, joint pain, irritable bowel symptoms, muscular pain and enervation following ingestion of foods, beverages or vitamins containing MCA. We believe that ingestion of the MCA may lead to a harmful inflammatory cascade which manifests differently in different individuals based on their genetic predisposition and susceptibility, and that the use of MCA as an additive in consumable products warrants further studies to document its safety.

Fungal Contaminants in Drinking Water Regulation? A Tale of Ecology, Exposure, Purification and Clinical Relevance

Microbiological drinking water safety is traditionally monitored mainly by bacterial parameters that indicate faecal contamination. These parameters correlate with gastro-intestinal illness, despite the fact that viral agents, resulting from faecal contamination, are usually the cause. This leaves behind microbes that can cause illness other than gastro-intestinal and several emerging pathogens, disregarding non-endemic microbial contaminants and those with recent pathogenic activity reported. This white paper focuses on one group of contaminants known to cause allergies, opportunistic infections and intoxications: Fungi. It presents a review on their occurrence, ecology and physiology. Additionally, factors contributing to their presence in water distribution systems, as well as their effect on water quality are discussed. Presence of opportunistic and pathogenic fungi in drinking water can pose a health risk to consumers due to daily contact with water, via several exposure points, such as drinking and showering. The clinical relevance and influence on human health of the most common fungal contaminants in drinking water is discussed. Our goal with this paper is to place fungal contaminants on the roadmap of evidence based and emerging threats for drinking water quality safety regulations.

Fractionation and identification of the allergic proteins in Aspergillus species

Background and Purpose:

Allergy is an undesired immune response to non-pathogenic agents. However, some opportunistic microorganisms such as fungi can also cause allergy. Among those fungi, hyphae form of Aspergillus strains including A. fumigatus, A. flavus, and A. niger could be mentioned. In this study, we aimed to separate allergic proteins from Aspergillus strains and determine their identity.

Materials and Methods:

Standard species of Aspergillus strains were cultivated in optimized conditions and the mycelium was separated by centrifugation. The fungal cells were lysed through physical methods such as freeze-thawing and grinding to prepare a suitable protein extract. The protein concentration was measured by Bradford method and the electrophoretic pattern of the extract was determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The proteins were fractionated by ammonium sulfate precipitation and anion exchange chromatography using fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) system. The IgE immunoreactivity of the sensitized patients and controls was studied using the fractionated proteins by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Following SDS-PAGE, proteins were electrotransferred onto polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes and the strips were blotted with allergic patients' and controls' sera. The immunoreactive bands were excised from colloidal coomassie-stained SDS-PAGE gels and studied by mass spectroscopy methods.

Results:

Among the studied species, A. fumigatus showed stronger IgE reactivity and more IgE reactive protein bands than others did. The proteins with higher molecular weights showed stronger immunoreactivity in Western blotting. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated a correlation between the results of the applied ELISA methods. One of the most prominent IgE-reactive proteins was confirmed to be 45 kDa mycelia catalase.

Conclusion:

Our findings confirmed that high molecular weight proteins might play a major role in allergy and IgE reactivity to Aspergillus species. Moreover, the results showed that precipitation and chromatographic methods are applicable for fractionation of fungal proteins such as mycelial catalase.