Anaphylaxis induced by a drug containing lysozyme and papain: influence of papain on the IgE response.

BACKGROUND: This paper reports the case of an egg-allergic pediatric patient who, once desensitized to egg following a successful rush oral immunotherapy protocol, could also tolerate Lizipaina®, a drug containing lysozyme (LYS) and papain, which had previously caused him a severe allergic reaction. Because the LYS amount that elicited the anaphylactic reaction (5 mg) was much lower than that tolerated during a double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge (corresponding to approximately 60 mg of LYS), the possibility that the presence of papain could increase the allergenic potential of LYS was investigated. METHODS: Lizipaina, LYS and LYS hydrolyzed with papain were analyzed by SDS-PAGE under reducing and nonreducing conditions, and Western blotting of sera from egg-allergic patients was performed in order to detect IgE-binding fragments. Finally, sequence identification of the IgE-reactive bands was carried out by MALDI-TOF/TOF. RESULTS: The SDS-PAGE pattern of LYS treated with papain under nonreducing conditions showed the presence of intact LYS that partially disappeared following reduction with ß-mercaptoethanol, releasing IgE-reactive fragments as determined by Western blotting. MALDI-TOF/TOF revealed that papain degraded LYS, giving rise to three IgE-binding fragments: LYS (22-129), LYS (34-96) and LYS (62-128) that likely remained linked through the disulfide bonds present in the LYS molecule. CONCLUSION: The combined administration of LYS with proteolytic enzymes such as papain may have developed a severe allergic reaction in the patient studied, underlining the importance of considering all the components and their interactions when drugs are to be consumed by allergic persons.