title: Immunochemical approach to detection of adulteration in honey: physiologically active royal jelly protein stimulating TNF-alpha release is a regular component of honey.
abstract: The presence of royal jelly (RJ) proteins in honey collected from nectars of different plants, origin, and regions and in honeybee's pollen was detected by Western-blot analysis using polyclonal antibodies raised against water-soluble RJ-proteins. The most abundant RJ-protein in honeybee products corresponded to a 55 kDa protein. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of 55 kDa protein was N-I-L-R-G-E. This sequence is identical to the apalbumin-1, the most abundant protein of RJ. Apalbumin-1 is a regular component of honeybee products and thus is a suitable marker tool for proving adulteration of honey by means of immunochemical detection. Its presence in all tested samples of honeys and honeybee pollen was confirmed also by Western-blot analysis using polyclonal antibodies raised against recombinant apalbumin-1. It has been found that major RJ-proteins, apalbumin-1, and apalbumin-2, stimulate mouse macrophages to release TNF-alpha, which demonstrates that physiologically active proteins of honey could be used for its biological valuation.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 38 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. chemsim@savba.sk
authors.forename: Jozef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Simúth
authors.forename: Katarína
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bíliková
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kovácová
authors.forename: Zuzana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kuzmová
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schroder
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006722:Honey / Q000032:analysis*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism*; D000099219:Royal Jelly
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D019476:Insect Proteins; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D000099219:Royal Jelly