Shellfish allergy

Abstract

Seafood plays an important role in human nutrition and health. The growing international trade in seafood species and products has added to the popularity and frequency of consumption of a variety of seafood products across many countries. This increased production and consumption of seafood has been accompanied by more frequent reports of adverse health problems among consumers as well as processors of seafood. Adverse reactions to seafood are often generated by contaminants but can also be mediated by the immune system and cause allergies. These reactions can result from exposure to the seafood itself or various non-seafood components in the product. Non-immunological reactions to seafood can be triggered by contaminants such as parasites, bacteria, viruses, marine toxins and biogenic amines. Ingredients added during processing and canning of seafood can also cause adverse reactions. Importantly all these substances are able to trigger symptoms which are similar to true allergic reactions, which are mediated by antibodies produced by the immune system against specific allergens. Allergic reactions to 'shellfish', which comprises the groups of crustaceans and molluscs, can generate clinical symptoms ranging from mild urticaria and oral allergy syndrome to life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. The prevalence of crustacean allergy seems to vary largely between geographical locations, most probably as a result of the availability of seafood. The major shellfish allergen is tropomyosin, although other allergens may play an important part in allergenicity such as arginine kinase and myosin light chain. Current observations regard tropomyosin to be the major allergen responsible for molecular and clinical cross-reactivity between crustaceans and molluscs, but also to other inhaled invertebrates such as house dust mites and insects. Future research on the molecular structure of tropomyosins with a focus on the immunological and particularly clinical cross-reactivity will improve diagnosis and management of this potentially life-threatening allergy and is essential for future immunotherapy.

Heterogeneity in Allergy to Mollusks: A Clinical-Immunological Study in a Population From the North of Spain

“…This association between allergy to crustaceans and mollusks has been widely recognized in the literature [24]. The degree of skin sensitization to both has been reported to be as high as 90% [18], although in our study it was only 66%.…”

Development of shellfish allergy after exposure to dual immune checkpoint blockade

“…Adverse reactions to shellfish can be produced by immunological and nonimmunological reactions. Nonimmunologic reactions tend to be triggered by contaminants such as parasites, bacteria, viruses or other toxins while immunologic reactions tend to be related to the allergen tropomyosin, arginine kinase or myosin light chain and may or may not be mediated by IgE [15]. The exact mechanism by which immune checkpoint inhibitors may cause the development of a new allergy is not fully understood and may be due to the imbalance of the immune system with the activation of T cells and subsequent release of cytokines.…”

Characterization of Seafood Proteins Causing Allergic Diseases

“…However, the RAST inhibition technique was used to evaluate the species-specific shrimp allergen (Morgan et al, 1989). Shrimp allergy is estimated to be about 2% of the general population (Besler et al, 2001;Lopata et al, 2010). The threshold doses for shrimp allergic individual were evaluated to be 16g (Daul et al, 1988) and for fish ranging from 5-600 mg (Taylor et al, 2002) using the double-blind placebo controlled food challenges (DBPCFC).…”

“…The United States has become the third largest consumer of seafood in the world, with 1.86 billion kg of crustaceans in 2007 (6.04 kg/capita/year) (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2007). Since seafood ingestion can cause severe acute hypersensitivity reactions and is recognized as one of the most common food allergies, the increased production and consumption of seafood has resulted in more frequent health problems (Lopata & Lehrer, 2009;Lopata et al, 2010). Exposure to seafood can cause a variety of health problems, including gastrointestinal disorders, urticaria, immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated asthma and anaphylaxis (Bang et al, 2005;Lopata & Lehrer, 2009;Malo & Cartier, 1993;Sicherer et al, 2004;Wild & Lehrer, 2005).…”