Physically
assisted chemical modifications can effectively reduce
the allergenicity of ovomucoid (OVM). However, only a few studies
have used pulsed electric field (PEF)-assisted alcalase hydrolysis
to reduce the allergenicity of OVM. Herein, we investigated the effect
of PEF-assisted alcalase treatment on the spatial conformation, allergenicity,
and antigenic epitopes of OVM based on multispectroscopic analyses,
bioinformatics, and mass spectrometry. The results showed that PEF-assisted
alcalase treatment promoted the hydrolysis of OVM; moreover, the α-helix
content and surface hydrophobicity of OVM significantly decreased,
which disordered its spatial conformation and weakened its intermolecular
interactions. Additionally, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
results showed that the PEF-assisted alcalase treatment significantly
reduced the binding levels of IgE and IgG1, which were 47.66 and 36.41%,
respectively. Finally, eight epitopes of OVM were obtained by immunoinformatic
tools. Nano-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem
mass spectrometry (nano-HPLC MS/MS) results showed that the hydrolysate
of OVM and alcalase (HOVM) had nine more peptide-containing epitopes
than the hydrolysate of PEF-treated OVM and PEF-treated alcalase (HOVM-PP′),
indicating that PEF could promote the elimination of linear epitopes
in OVM, thereby reducing OVM allergenicity.