Analysis of maize profilin-4 isoform as an allergen

Profilin is an actin monomer-binding protein that controls the dynamic turnover of actin filaments and is ubiquitously present in different organisms ranging from prokaryotes to higher eukaryotes. Maize (Zea mays) profilin-4 isoform is a pollen-specific protein. Birch profilin isoform is a known allergen but maize profilin is yet to be characterized. Due to the high cultivation rate of maize, the analysis of the properties of maize profilin-4 isoform as an allergen is a demand of time for developing an effective immune therapy. Here, we analyzed the allergenic potency of profilin-4 by studying its physicochemical properties, including molecular weight (~14kD) and theoretical pI (4.63). We tested the potential B cell epitope candidates of profilin-4 using different immune-informatics tools housed at IEDB analysis resource. For the B cell epitope prediction, potential antigenic sites on the protein surface were predicted by both propensity scale and machine learning method followed by their mapping of 3D structure prediction. Our findings suggest that profilin-4 is a potential allergen and is able to induce allergic responses.