Despite
the fact that tropomyosin (TM) has highly stable structural
characteristics, thermal processing can adversely influence its immunodetection,
and the mechanism involved has not been elucidated. Purified TM was
heated at various temperatures, and then the IgG/IgE-binding capacity
and immunodetection recovery were determined; meanwhile, the structural
alterations were analyzed via spectroscopic and molecular dynamics
simulation techniques. The obtained results demonstrated that heat-treated
TM showed significantly increased IgG/IgE reactivity, confirmed by
indirect ELISA and immunoblotting analysis, which might be attributed
to the increased structural flexibility, and thus allowed TM to be
recognized IgG/IgE easily. However, these structural alterations during
thermal processing would contribute to the masking of some epitopes
located in TM’s surface due to the presence of curled or folded
conformation with a considerable reduction of the solvent-accessible
surface and radius of gyration, which primarily caused immunodetection
recovery reduction in the sandwich ELISA (sELISA) test. The number
of antigen binding sites might play a crucial role in a sandwich immunodetection
system for sensitive and precise analysis in processed foods.
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