Question

Explain what meat allergy (or alpha-gal syndrome) is and how it develops.

Answer 1

Alpha-gal syndrome or meat-allergy is a recently identified type of food allergy found after the consumption of red meat. In USA, the condition most of the time begins when a Lone Star tick bite and transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into the body. In some people, this foreign molecule triggers an immune system reaction which later creates mild to severe allergic reactions when those people consume red meat. The same reaction is also found with Ixodes australiansis in Australia, Haemaphysalis longicornis in Japan etc.

Usually after the bite of Lone Star Tick a specific molecule is transferred within the blood which is known as Alpha-gal that is alpha-D-Galactopyranosyl-1,3-D-Galactose. This molecule is not found in apes, old world monkeys and Human beimgs but the other mamalia have this molecule naturally. For this reason this molecule is treated as a foreign molecule which triggers the release IgE antibodies to fight against this foreign sugar molecule and this causes. For this reason, the intake of mammal meat in future with the same alpha-gal triggers a delayed allergic reaction.