Insights into the Allergenic Potential of the Edible Yellow Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Barre, Annick; Pichereaux, Carole; Velazquez, Esmeralda; Maudouit, Agathe; Simplicien, Mathias; Garnier, L.; Bienvenu, F.; Bienvenu, Jacques; Burlet‐Schiltz, Odile; Auriol, Cedric; Benoist, Hervé; Rougé, Pierre

doi:10.3390/foods8100515

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Nevertheless, our method allowed highlighting those muscle proteins, which in Rabani et al 23 represented only a small proportion of the total, are indeed the most abundant. The protein patterns here determined were more similar to the one described by Yi et al 24 and Barre et al 9 for Yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor). Yi and colleagues applied for protein extraction a Filter Aided Sample Preparation (FASP) (involving the use of SDS, Urea and DTT).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

Shotgun proteomics, in-silico evaluation and immunoblotting assays for allergenicity assessment of lesser mealworm, black soldier fly and their protein hydrolysates

Tedeschi

Faccini

Pratesi

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Since 2018, insects have belonged the category of Novel Foods and the presence of allergens represents one of the main hazards connected to their consumption, also due to the potential cross-reactivity with Arthropoda pan-allergens. In the present work, the allergenicity assessment of black soldier fly and lesser mealworm was performed with a shotgun bottom-up proteomic approach combined with in-silico assessment, followed by IgG-and IgE-immunoblotting experiments. The peptides identified, filtered for their abundance and robustness, belonged mainly to muscle proteins, which represented the most abundant protein group. the relevant potential allergens were in-silico identified by sequence similarity to known allergens, and among them tropomyosin resulted the most abundant insect allergen. igG-immunoblotting analysis with anti-tropomyosin i antibodies and ige-immunoblotting assay with serum from patient allergic to crustacean tropomyosin were performed in order to assess the immunoreactivity in both insects. the immunoassays were carried out also on protein hydrolysates extracted by treating insects with protease from Bacillus licheniformis (1%, 60 °C, pH 7.5). While igG-immunoblotting demonstrated the loss of immunoreactivity for both hydrolysates, igeimmunoblotting showed a partial immunoreactivity preservation, also after hydrolysis, in the case of black soldier fly hydrolysate, and a total loss of immunoreactivity for lesser mealworm hydrolysate Novel food protein sources are being studied in order to meet the future requirement for food, in connection to the perspectives of growing population 1 . Insects represent a good source of proteins, not only because of the high protein content in some species, but also for their nutritional quality in terms of essential amino acids profile. Not of a secondary importance, insect breeding, in comparison to common livestock, is characterized by many environmental advantages, such as less land use, feed and water requirement, fewer greenhouse gas emission and high feed conversion ratio 2 .From January 1 st of 2018, insects have been included in the category of novel foods and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) opinion is mandatory before their marketing 3 . In 2015, EFSA assessed for the first time the safety related to insect consumption. The potential hazards connected to the use of insects in food or feed were deemed to be related to exogenous and endogenous factors, which could be influenced also by harvesting and processing methods 4 . The presence of allergens represents one of the main endogenous risk related to the consumption of insects. Insect-based food ingredients could cause an allergenic response either due to a primary sensitization, or to a cross-reaction. Primary sensitization is related to the ability of insect proteins to elicit an allergic reaction not related to other food allergies. This risk is widespread mainly in regions where edible insects are commonly used (e.g. China) 5 . A cross reaction, more likely where insects are not commonly consume...

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

Shotgun proteomics, in-silico evaluation and immunoblotting assays for allergenicity assessment of lesser mealworm, black soldier fly and their protein hydrolysates

Tedeschi

Faccini

Pratesi

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…A total of 20 articles were included in this systematic review -19 obtained through database research and 1 (Jiang et al, 2016) obtained through screening of the references of included studies (although it was published in 2016, it was included since it was not present in our previous review) (Figure 1). Of these 20 articles, 8 studied cross-reactivity or cosensitisation with either crustaceans or HDM (Barre et al, 2019;Beaumont et al, 2019;Broekman et al, 2017a;Hall et al, 2018;Kamemura et al, 2019;Pali-Scholl et al, 2019;Palmer et al, 2020;Sokol et al, 2017), 5 focused on primary sensitisation (Broekman et al, 2017a,b;Francis et al, 2019;Jeong et al, 2017;Nebbia et al, 2019), 1 evaluated allergenic potential of insect tropomyosin (Klueber et al, 2020), 3 studied the effects of food processing techniques on insects' allergenicity (Hall et al, 2018;Hall and Liceaga, 2020;Pali-Scholl et al, 2019), 4 were case reports or case series (Beaumont et al, 2019;Gadisseur et al, 2019;Nebbia et al, 2019;Sokol et al, 2017), 3 assessed the frequency of food allergies or food anaphylaxis caused by insects (Jiang et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2019;Rangkakulnuwat et al, 2020) and 2 assessed the prevalence of allergic reaction among insect-eaters (Chomchai et al, 2020;Taylor and Wang, 2018).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edible insects and food safety: allergy

Ribeiro

Sousa‐Pinto

Fonseca

et al. 2021

JIFF

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Edible insects are a unique food source, requiring extensive allergenic risk assessment before its safe introduction in the food market. In a recent systematic review, crustacean allergic subjects were identified as a risk group due to cross-reactivity mainly mediated by tropomyosin and arginine kinase. Immunologic co-sensitisation to house dust mites (HDM) was also demonstrated, but its clinical significance and molecular mechanisms were unclear. Furthermore, case reports of food allergy to insects were also analysed but lack of contextual information hindered the analysis. The main goal of this review is to provide an update of new information regarding food allergy caused by insects, covering relevant topics considering the guidelines for allergic risk assessment in novel foods. Newly published studies have further confirmed the role of tropomyosin as a cross-reactive allergen between edible insects and crustaceans, although there are some questions regarding the immunoglobulin E (IgE)-reactivity of this allergen in mealworm species. Furthermore, only specific treatments (enzymatic hydrolysis combined with thermal treatments) were able to eliminate IgE-reactivity of edible insects. Primary sensitisation (e.g. to Tenebrio molitor) has also been shown to be an important pathway for the development of food allergies, with responsible allergens being dependent on the route of sensitisation. However, more studies are necessary to better understand the potential of primary sensitisation causing cross-reactivity with other insect species, crustaceans or HDM. The clinical significance and molecular mechanisms involved in cross-reactivity between edible insects and HDM are still unclear, and a major focus should be given to better understand which allergens cause co-sensitisations between HDM and edible insects and what is the risk of HDM-only allergic subjects consuming edible insects. Contextual information about the reported cases of allergic reactions to insects have further demonstrated that insect-rearing workers and subjects with allergic diseases (in particular, food allergy to crustaceans) are the major risk groups.

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“…Both proteomic and 2D electrophoresis results were consistent with previously published work on the characterization of T. molitor proteins. These studies identified many pan-allergens, such as muscle proteins (actin, myosin, tropomyosin) [ 15 , 32 , 39 ], hemolymph proteins (hexamerin 1 and 2) [ 15 , 32 , 39 ], and proteins associated with various metabolic activities (arginine kinase, α-amylase) [ 39 , 40 , 41 ], to be the most abundant in T. molitor. Overall, the protein profiles were quite similar for the four fractions although specific differences in the abundance of major proteins were observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Hexane on Protein Profile, Solubility and Foaming Properties of Defatted Proteins Extracted from Tenebrio molitor Larvae

et al. 2021

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Inclusion of edible insects in human diets is increasingly promoted as a sustainable source of proteins with high nutritional value. While consumer acceptability remains the main challenge to their integration into Western food culture, the use of edible insects as meal and protein concentrate could decrease neophobia. The defatting of edible insects, mostly done with hexane, is the first step in producing protein ingredients. However, its impact on protein profiles and techno-functionality is still unclear. Consequently, this study compares the protein profiles of hexane-defatted and non-hexane-defatted yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) meals and protein extracts, and evaluates the impact of hexane on protein solubility and foaming properties. Results showed that profiles for major proteins were similar between hexane-defatted and non-defatted samples, however some specific content differences (e.g., hexamerin 2) were observed and characterized using proteomic tools. Protein solubility was markedly lower for T. molitor meals compared to protein extracts. A large increase in the foaming capacity was observed for defatted fractions, whereas foam stability decreased similarly in all fractions. Consequently, although the hexane-defatting step was largely studied to produce edible insect protein ingredients, it is necessary to precisely understand its impact on their techno-functional properties for the development of food formulations.

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Insights into the Allergenic Potential of the Edible Yellow Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Cited by 26 publications

References 81 publications

Shotgun proteomics, in-silico evaluation and immunoblotting assays for allergenicity assessment of lesser mealworm, black soldier fly and their protein hydrolysates

Shotgun proteomics, in-silico evaluation and immunoblotting assays for allergenicity assessment of lesser mealworm, black soldier fly and their protein hydrolysates

Edible insects and food safety: allergy

Effects of Hexane on Protein Profile, Solubility and Foaming Properties of Defatted Proteins Extracted from Tenebrio molitor Larvae

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