Analysis of Ani s 7 and Ani s 1 allergens as biomarkers of sensitization and allergy severity in human anisakiasis

The high frequency of infection by Anisakis simplex (A. simplex) has led to an increase in IgE sensitization, turning allergy to this parasite a relevant contemporary health problem. Improving the lack of conventional diagnosis test specificity is crucial to better understand these clinical scenarios. Specific IgE (sIgE) to A. simplex extract by ImmunoCAP (Anisakis-sIgE) was determined in sera from 403 blood donors (BD) from Cantabria (North of Spain) of which 51 subjects resulted sensitized. Among these latter, 47 were asymptomatic (sABD). The values of total IgE, prick-test, Anisakis-sIgE, and sIgE to Ani s 1 (anti-rAni s 1) and Ani s 7 (anti-rAni s 7) were compared between 46 sABD and 49 A. simplex allergic patients. The IgE seroprevalence by ImmunoCAP among BD was 12.65%. Allergic patients and sABD showed significant differences in all serum biomarkers evaluated. The area under the curve was assessed for Anisakis-sIgE (0.892), sIgE-rAni s 1 (0.672) and sIgE-rAni s 7 (0.668). After a severe reaction, significantly higher levels of Anisakis-sIgE and sIgE anti-rAni s 1 were detected. Determinations of sIgE by ImmunoCAP, Ani s 1 and Ani s 7 presented different sensitization patterns between allergic and asymptomatic individuals. The Ani s 1 allergen arises as a possible biomarker to detect patients at risk of suffering severe allergic reactions.