Science and Technology Allergy to wine The oenophile's lament
科技 红酒过敏 酒鬼们的烦恼
An explanation for a most unfortunate condition
这件不幸的事现在有解释了
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.
这世上有一个统计数据令人伤心，那就是大约有8%的人在饮用红酒以后会产生打喷嚏和头昏脑涨的症状。这种轻微过敏反应常常和作为防腐添加剂的亚硫酸盐有关联。但是此类过敏症况只有1/8的情况是由亚硫酸盐造成的，其他7/8的情况一直病因不明。不过南丹麦大学的Giuseppe Palmisano认为他搞明白这是怎么回事了。
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.
他和他的团队在蛋白组学研究期刊上发表文章称，罪魁祸首是糖蛋白--顾名思义，就是由糖类和蛋白质组成的一类蛋白质。这倒也不算意外。糖蛋白也涉及其他的过敏症。不过Palmisano博士认为他找到了与红酒过敏特定相关的那几个糖蛋白。
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.
为了找到这个过敏原，Palmisano博士将一些白葡萄酒用冰凉的三氯乙酸和酒精处理以沉淀出所有的糖蛋白，之后将它们消化成叫做多肽的小分子以便用质谱仪分析。他拿检查结果和已知过敏原的数据库对比。有三个糖蛋白引入眼帘，其中一个过敏性蛋白相似，该蛋白可以再乳胶和梨中发现；第二个与另一个乳胶蛋白以及一个橄榄蛋白相似，这两个蛋白也是已知的过敏原；第三个与造成花粉过敏的豚草蛋白类似，该蛋白可说是过敏原里最厉害的一个了。
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.
酿酒商们会不会因为这个发现而改进产品这未有可知。不过通过调节生产流程来减少过敏原的产生倒是很有可能的。不管怎么说，说真的，下次你又喝红酒头疼的时候就不用怪酒了，应该怪糖蛋白么。