Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Science & Engineering B journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mseb A new method to support the cross-reactivity in allergenic reactions of cypress and wheat using piezoelectric signals Francisco Quintanilla a , Susana Vargas b , Domingo Rangel b , Ulises Merino a , Rogelio Rodríguez b, ⁎ a Facultad de Química, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, C.U., Cerro de las Campanas, 76010 Querétaro, Qro., Mexico b Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Blvd. Juriquilla 3001, 76230 Querétaro, Qro., Mexico ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Allergens Wheat Cypress Cross-reactions Piezoelectric response ABSTRACT A novel method is proposed to determine whether two proteins from different sources can be, potentially, candidates for cross-reactions allergies. The cross-reaction allergies are usually based on the similarity, partial or total, of the amino acids sequences of both proteins; however, according to our results, the recognition between proteins from different sources is carried out at secondary structure level; at this level the local shape and the charge distribution, of these proteins have to be similar to share cross-reactions. The charge distribution con- trols, to some extent, the ionic transport in the electrolyte. The ionic transport in cypress and wheat samples was determined and compared each other, obtaining that the piezoelectric relaxation voltages were practically the same. Several samples from cupressus arizonica Cup a 1 and the triticum aestivum gli mRNA and triticum aestivum clone 175 glutenin (GluB3-2) mRNA were prepared. 1. Introduction Allergic diseases affect more than a billion of people around the world and it is increasing continuously with a prognostic that, in around 30 years, more than half of the global population will suffer these diseases; from these 20 to 40% are children and 60 to 80% are adults, being the main origin pollen (aeroallergens) and food. Consequently, this is becoming an important public health problem with different intensities, from light to severe [1]; it is typical that al- lergies can produce exacerbated reactions causing, in some cases, the death. They are important implications from the medical and eco- nomical point of view, because the high amount of time and money involved to treat this social problem. One of the mayor problems with allergies is the way they are di- agnosed. The actual more common methods for allergy test are blood and skin tests, being the most common test, the prick test that consist, basically, in topic superficial tests where several allergens are placed in contact with the patient to produce some general external reactions, and measuring the intensity and extension of the irritation produced [2]. Even when the skin prick testing is considered the safest and most specific one, however it is expensive, invasive, no conclusive, with low sensitivity and with the problem that can induce a positive reaction in patients with no history to some specific allergen; this effect is called: allergy induced by prick. The exact nature of allergenic structures cannot be easily defined; among other contributions, a complication arises by the influence of the host himself: a repeated exposure to the allergen is required to produce allergic reactions, and the levels of antibodies are related to the in- tensity of the reaction: high antibodies concentrations are necessary to trigger the cellular responses. The allergy problems are generally studied by determining the hy- persensitivity of the patient to aeroallergens and/or food and using the skin prick method. However, the great variety of sources of allergenic proteins such as pollen, animals, mites, molds, venom, foods, latex, etc. [3] makes difficult to treat this disease. Then, it is important to establish quantitative methods (molecular, chemical, electrical, etc.) for a better and reliable diagnose of allergies, including the important cross-re- activity effect in allergic disease. It has been observed that certain genetically engineered molecules can display higher activity than the original type of allergens [4]; then it is possible that homologous allergens from different sources, to which patients have never been exposed, could show higher activity than the primary molecules. It is now possible to determine the complete amino acids sequence of allergenic proteins from different sources; from this information most allergens have been grouped into structural protein families, regardless of their biological source. The clinical and analy- tical results confirm that cypress and wheat are strongly correlated; this correlation has been supported by the molecular conformation, i.e. by https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2019.05.029 Received 1 February 2018; Received in revised form 11 April 2019; Accepted 30 May 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rogelior@unam.mx (R. Rodríguez). Materials Science & Engineering B 246 (2019) 104–111 0921-5107/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T