Patient allergy to fruits and vegetables may be cross-reactive. We have compared the apple 18kDa allergen and latex allergens to its cross- reactive proteins in various vegetables and fruits. The apple 19kDa allergen reacts with 16-18 kD proteins of eggplant, carrot, potato, green bean, and cabbage. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of reactive protein in eggplant and cabbage are determined and share 100% identity to pathogenesis related proteins. Latex allergen share cross reactivity with avocado and banana. The major allergen per a 1 in avocado has purified and cloned. Our laboratory recently purified and cloned a novel latex allergen, Hev b 5. We have purified several major allergens from latex including, Hev b 5, following fragmenting by proteases. The eluted peptide fragments will be used for identifying IgE binding bites using allergic patient's sera. Later the IgE binding sites will be delineated by enzyme linked immunosorbant assay using synthetic overlapping peptides sequence. A 5kD and a 30kD protein that exists in 2 alternaria isolates were identified.
