Proteins Derived from Cnidium officinale Makino React with Serum IgE of Allergic Patients and Stimulate ERK/NF-kB Activation in Human Mast Cell Line HMC-1 Cells

Herbal products are the most representative alternative medicine, but most herbal drugs are taken orally and these can cause allergic reactions in the gastrointestinal tract such as food allergies. To confirm whether herbal proteins can cause allergic reaction by binding to human serum immunoglobulin E (IgE), we selected sera from 800 randomized human sera using Allergy-Q tests and investigated the allergenic reactivity of Cnidium officinale (CO) Makinoe extract with positive sera in HMC-1 cells. The proteins derived from CO extract were separated by SDS-PAGE, and identified these proteins using LC–MS/MS. The human sera IgE binding proteins were estimated at the four different predicted proteins such as FAR1-related sequence 5-like protein, a carrier protein, a hypothetical protein, and a predicted protein. The number of positive sera reacted with CO extract was 18 in 800 donor blood (2.25%). In HMC-1 cells, a co-treatment of the positive sera containing CO-specific IgE with CO extract induced synergy effects in ERK/NF-kB activation compared with a sole treatment of human sera, but negative sera did not show a significant change. This results imply that herbal allergens can cause allergic reaction through the crosslinking with human serum IgE, and it may trigger hypersensitivity of body immune system.