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Science and Technology Allergy to wine The oenophile's lament
科技 紅酒過敏 酒鬼們的煩惱
An explanation for a most unfortunate condition
這件不幸的事現在有解釋了
ONE of life’s sadder statistics is that about 8% of people get sneezy and stuffy-headed after drinking wine. This mild allergic reaction is often blamed on preservative chemicals called sulphites, but they are responsible for only an eighth of cases. The reason for the rest is obscure. Giuseppe Palmisano of the University of Southern Denmark, however, thinks he knows the answer.
這世上有一個統計數據令人傷心，那就是大約有8%的人在飲用紅酒以后會產生打噴嚏和頭昏腦漲的癥狀。這種輕微過敏反應常常和作為防腐添加劑的亞硫酸鹽有關聯。但是此類過敏癥況只有1/8的情況是由亞硫酸鹽造成的，其他7/8的情況一直病因不明。不過南丹麥大學的Giuseppe Palmisano認為他搞明白這是怎么回事了。
As he and his colleagues report in the Journal of Proteome Research, the culprits are glycoproteins—compounds composed, as their name suggests, of sugar and protein. That is not a complete surprise. Glycoproteins are implicated in several other allergies. But Dr Palmisano thinks he has identified the ones specific to wine.
他和他的團隊在蛋白組學研究期刊上發表文章稱，罪魁禍首是糖蛋白--顧名思義，就是由糖類和蛋白質組成的一類蛋白質。這倒也不算意外。糖蛋白也涉及其他的過敏癥。不過Palmisano博士認為他找到了與紅酒過敏特定相關的那幾個糖蛋白。
To do so he started with a cheeky little chardonnay, treated it with ice-cold trichloroacetic acid and ethanol to precipitate any glycoproteins, then digested those glycoproteins into smaller molecules called peptides that can be analysed by mass spectroscopy. He screened the results against a database of known allergenic proteins. Three stood out. One is similar to allergenic proteins found in latex and pears. Another looks like a second latex protein and an olive protein, both known allergens. The third resembles one of the most rampant allergens of them all, a ragweed protein that causes hay fever.
為了找到這個過敏原，Palmisano博士將一些白葡萄酒用冰涼的三氯乙酸和酒精處理以沉淀出所有的糖蛋白，之后將它們消化成叫做多肽的小分子以便用質譜儀分析。他拿檢查結果和已知過敏原的數據庫對比。有三個糖蛋白引入眼簾，其中一個過敏性蛋白相似，該蛋白可以再乳膠和梨中發現；第二個與另一個乳膠蛋白以及一個橄欖蛋白相似，這兩個蛋白也是已知的過敏原；第三個與造成花粉過敏的豚草蛋白類似，該蛋白可說是過敏原里最厲害的一個了。
Whether winemakers will be able to act on this knowledge is moot. But it might be possible to tweak the production process to reduce the presence of the allergens. In any case, you can now blame that stuffy feeling that comes after drinking on glycoproteins, not alcohol. Honest.
釀酒商們會不會因為這個發現而改進產品這未有可知。不過通過調節生產流程來減少過敏原的產生倒是很有可能的。不管怎么說，說真的，下次你又喝紅酒頭疼的時候就不用怪酒了，應該怪糖蛋白么。
