Abstract
Our previous studies indicated that ultrasound treatment can increase the anaphylaxis of protein. However, investigation on the anaphylaxis changes of ultrasound-treated α-lactalbumin (ALA) during digestion is lacking. The anaphylaxis of ultrasound-treated ALA and its digesta was investigated. The anti-digestive stable peptides were identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry. Ultrasound induced the tertiary structure of ALA to unfold and increased its anaphylaxis. During digestion, the anaphylaxis of both gastric and gastroduodenal digesta was further increased. There are two reasons for this phenomenon. On the one hand, linear epitopes played an important role in affecting anaphylaxis compared with the conformational epitope, and some linear epitopes were still retained on the anti-digestive stable peptides produced after gastroduodenal digestion, resulting in increased anaphylaxis after digestion. On the other hand, the presence of intact ALA molecules after digestion still remained strong anaphylaxis. Compared with the digesta of untreated ALA, the digesta of ultrasound-treated ALA possessed higher anaphylaxis. The results indicated that ultrasound increased the anaphylaxis of ALA during digestion.