IgE-Binding Properties of Recombinant Food Allergens

Recombinant DNA technology is a common procedure to produce allergenic proteins in vitro. To date, more than 40 food allergens from fruits, vegetables, nuts, milk and seafood have been expressed as recombinant proteins. Since recombinant proteins can be produced in large quantities and in controlled quality, they promise to be suitable tools for precise diagnostics and research applications. "Hypoallergenic" variants of these molecules with reduced or abolished IgE-binding activity may be candidates for immunotherapy of food allergies. Comparative investigations of recombinant food allergens and their natural counterparts may offer new insights into the structural basis of allergenicity. This review provides a collection of data on recombinant food allergens and the spectrum of IgE-binding assays with which they have been tested. In addition, possible structural differences between natural and recombinant food allergens are considered and future diagnostic and therapeutic applications of recombinant food allergens are discussed. (Internet Symposium on Food Allergens 2001, 3(1):1-36) recombinant allergen, food allergy, IgE-binding activity, post-translational modifications, extracts, expression system, diagnosis, immunotherapy