Purification, Immunological Identification, and Characterization of the Novel Silkworm Pupae Allergen Bombyx mori Lipoprotein 3 (Bomb m 6).

Allergic reactions caused by silkworm pupae greatly limit their utilization, and studies suggest that silkworm pupae proteins of 25-30 kDa may be the principal allergens. To further understand these allergens, we attempted to purify a protein of about 30 kDa by ammonium sulfate salting, pH-graded precipitation, and ion-exchange chromatography. The protein was identified by mass spectrometry and characterized by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), western blot, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, circular dichroism, and fluorescence spectroscopy analyses. We identified the purified protein as Bombyx mori lipoprotein 3 (Bmlp3), which has high IgE reactivity and is a novel uncharacterized allergen that we named Bomb m 6 according to the WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee. This allergen is stable against heat, acids, bases, and digestion. In conclusion, we successfully purified and characterized a novel silkworm pupa allergen, which may inform the diagnosis and treatment of silkworm pupa allergies.

Aggravation of food allergy symptoms by treatment with acrylamide in a mouse model.

Acrylamide (AA) forms during the thermal processing of food, but adversely affects human health. As the consumption of heat-processed foods increases, the potentially harmful effect of AA on food allergies needs to be clarified. Here, we investigated how AA affects the allergenicity of OVA in vivo using a mouse model of orally induced OVA allergy. AA enhanced OVA-induced food allergic response by increasing IgE, IgG, IgG1, histamine, and MCP-1. AA promoted the Th2 cell response to modulate the imbalance in Th1/Th2. Furthermore, AA reduced the expression of intestinal tight junction proteins, and disrupted the permeability of the intestine, which impaired the intestinal epithelial barrier, resulting in more OVA crossing it. These actions aggravated the allergic reaction of OVA. In conclusion, this study confirmed the potentially harmful effect of AA on food allergy.

Functional and Allergenic Properties Assessment of Conalbumin (Ovotransferrin) after Oxidation.

Conalbumin (CA) is an iron-binding egg protein that has various bioactivities and causes major allergenicity in humans. This study investigated how oxidation affects the multiple functional properties of CA. The lipid peroxidation method was used to prepare treated CA [2,2'-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH)-CA and acrolein-CA] complexes. CA induced structural changes through oxidation. These changes enhanced the digestibility, rate of endocytosis in dendritic cells, and emulsifying and foaming properties of CA. ELISA and immunoblot analysis showed that the complexes reduced the IgE-binding ability of CA through lipid oxidation. KU812 cell assays showed that modification by AAPH and acrolein caused the release of IL-4 and histamine to decline. In conclusion, oxidation treatment modified the functional and structural properties of CA, reducing allergenicity during processing and preservation.

Impacts of COVID-19 on air quality in mid-eastern China: An insight into meteorology and emissions.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread rapidly worldwide in the first half of 2020. Stringent national lockdown policies imposed by China to prevent the spread of the virus reduced anthropogenic emissions and improved air quality. A weather research and forecasting model coupled with chemistry was applied to evaluate the impact of meteorology and emissions on air quality during the COVID-19 outbreak (from January 23 to February 29, 2020) in mid-eastern China. The results show that air pollution episodes still occurred on polluted days and accounted for 31.6%-60.5% of the total number of outbreak days in mid-eastern China from January 23 to February 29, 2020. However, anthropogenic emissions decreased significantly, indicating that anthropogenic emission reduction cannot completely offset the impact of unfavorable meteorological conditions on air quality. Favorable meteorological conditions in 2019 improved the overall air quality for a COVID-19 outbreak in 2019 instead of 2020. PM2.5 concentrations decreased by 4.2%-29.2% in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, and Taiyuan, and increased by 6.1%-11.5% in Jinan and Zhengzhou. PM2.5 concentrations increased by 10.9%-20.5% without the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 in mid-eastern China, and the frequency of polluted days increased by 5.3%-18.4%. Source apportionment of PM2.5 during the COVID-19 outbreak showed that industry and residential emissions were the dominant PM2.5 contributors (32.7%-49.6% and 26.0%-44.5%, respectively) followed by agriculture (18.7%-24.0%), transportation (7.7%-15.5%), and power (4.1%-5.9%). In Beijing, industrial and residential contributions to PM2.5 concentrations were lower (32.7%) and higher (44.5%), respectively, than in other cities (38.7%-49.6% for industry and 26.0%-36.2% for residential). Therefore, enhancing regional cooperation and implementing a united air pollution control are effective emission mitigation measures for future air quality improvement, especially the development of new technologies for industrial and cooking fumes.

Model reduction for the Kuramoto-Sakaguchi model: The importance of nonentrained rogue oscillators.

The Kuramoto-Sakaguchi model for coupled phase oscillators with phase frustration is often studied in the thermodynamic limit of infinitely many oscillators. Here we extend a model reduction method based on collective coordinates to capture the collective dynamics of finite-size Kuramoto-Sakaguchi models. We find that the inclusion of the effects of rogue oscillators is essential to obtain an accurate description, in contrast to the original Kuramoto model, where we show that their effects can be ignored. We further introduce a more accurate ansatz function to describe the shape of synchronized oscillators. Our results from this extended collective coordinate approach reduce in the thermodynamic limit to the well-known mean-field consistency relations. For finite networks we show that our model reduction describes the collective behavior accurately, reproducing the order parameter, the mean frequency of the synchronized cluster, and the size of the cluster at a given coupling strength, as well as the critical coupling strength for partial and for global synchronization.