Proteomics for Development of Food Allergy Vaccines

Abstract

Food allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction to food products initiated by immunologic mechanisms, which represents one of the major concerns in food safety. New therapies for food allergies including oral and epicutaneous allergen-specific immunotherapy are required, and B cell epitope-based allergy vaccines are a good promise to improve this field. In this chapter, we describe a workflow for the design of food allergy vaccines using proteomic tools. The strategy is defined based on the characterization of B cell epitopes for a particular food allergen. For that, the workflow comprises five consecutive steps: (1) shotgun proteomics analysis of different protein isoforms for a particular food allergen, (2) downloading all protein sequences for the specific allergen included in UniProtKB database, (3) analysis by protein-based bioinformatics of B cell epitopes, (4) synthesizing of the selected B cell peptide epitopes, and (5) performing of immunoassays using sera from healthy and allergic patients. The results from this method provide a rationale repository of B cell epitopes for the design of new specific immunotherapies for a particular food allergen. The strategy was optimized for all the beta-parvalbumins (β-PRVBs), which are considered as the main fish allergens. Using this workflow, a total of 35 peptides were identified as B cell epitopes, among them the top 4 B cell peptide epitopes that may induce protective immune response were selected as potential peptide vaccine candidates for fish allergy.

Proteomics Characterization of Food-Derived Bioactive Peptides with Anti-Allergic and Anti-Inflammatory Properties

“…The most favorable strategies at this time, which are assessed against IgE-mediated allergic diseases, include the opportunity to use proteomics for the characterization of epitopes to develop new food allergy vaccines [ 36 , 37 ] and the use of immunomodulating peptides to stimulate oral tolerance toward food allergens or prevent allergic sensitization [ 38 ]. Accordingly, several potential food sources of anti-allergens were obtained based on bioactive peptides.…”

“…Peptides with anti-inflammatory properties from different food sources can be used to provide safer alternatives to NSAIDs. Moreover, the use of proteomics for the determination of epitopes is a promising strategy against IgE-mediated allergic diseases, with immunomodulating peptides being used to induce oral tolerance and the design of new food allergy vaccines [ 36 , 37 ].…”

Advances and potential of omics studies for understanding the development of food allergy

“…Here we summarize the application of omics technology in FA and discuss its future use in the characterization of FA development. For a broader understanding of omics assays in other contexts please refer to these excellent reviews (33)(34)(35)(36).…”