Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Research Article

Quantitative Analysis of Anti-Hevea brasiliensis Antibody Cross-Reactivity against Taraxacum kok-saghyz Latex Proteins Demonstrates Significantly Reduced Antibody Recognition

Julian T Dafoe, Fang Huang and Trent Chunzhong Yang^*

National Research Council Canada, Aquatic and Crop Resource Development Portfolio, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 5A2

*Corresponding Author:

Yang TC
National Research Council Canada
Aquatic and Crop Resource Development Portfolio
100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 5A2
Tel: +1 (613) 990-2114
E-mail: trent.yang@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Received date: August 22, 2017; Accepted date: September 23, 2017; Published date: September 30, 2017

Citation: Dafoe JT, Huang F, Yang TC (2017) Quantitative Analysis of Anti-Hevea brasiliensis Antibody Cross-Reactivity Against Taraxacum kok-saghyz Latex Proteins Demonstrates Significantly Reduced Antibody Recognition. J Biotechnol Biomater 7:270. doi:10.4172/2155-952X.1000270

Copyright: © 2017 NRC Canada. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The annual plant Taraxacum kok-saghyz, commonly called Russian dandelion, has recently gained commercial attention as an alternative source to the rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis, for natural rubber latex. While producing rubber of equivalent quality, the potential application of TKS latex for hypoallergenic products remains to be determined. In order to quantify the allergenicity of TKS latex proteins, we compared the extent of anti-Hevea latex polyclonal and monoclonal antibody cross-reactivity toward Hevea latex proteins to that of TKS latex proteins by quantitative ELISA methods and semi-quantitative image densitometry. ELISA measurement of polyclonal antibody recognition toward TKS latex proteins was on the order of one-tenth relative to equal amounts of Hevea latex protein, while recognition by the monoclonal antibody was below 2%. Immunoblots confirmed significantly reduced polyclonal antibody recognition toward TKS latex proteins, in the same range as the cross-reactivity exhibited toward the rubber-producing plant, Lactuca sativa and Glycine max, a non-rubber-producing plant. Despite the presence of cross-reactivity, these quantitative results support TKS as an alternative source of latex that may require lessintensive processing for the reduction of antigenic proteins in the manufacture of hypoallergenic natural rubber latex products.  

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