Evidence runs contrary to digestive stability predicting protein allergenicity

• Published in: Transgenic research Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 105 - 107
• Main Authors: Herman, Rod A., Roper, Jason M., Zhang, John X. Q.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-02-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Allergenicity; Allergens; Allergens - immunology; Allergens - metabolism; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Dietary Proteins - immunology; Dietary Proteins - metabolism; Digestion; Food allergies; Food Hypersensitivity - immunology; Food Hypersensitivity - metabolism; Gastrointestinal Contents - chemistry; Genetic Engineering; Humans; Immunoglobulin E - metabolism; Life Sciences; Molecular Medicine; Original Paper; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Proteins; Transgenics; Food allergy; Food proteins; Digestion; Risk assessment; Antacids
• ISSN: 0962-8819; 1573-9368
• DOI: 10.1007/s11248-019-00182-x

A dogma has persisted for over two decades that food allergens are more stable to digestion compared with non-allergenic proteins. This belief has become enshrined in regulations designed to assess the allergenic risk of novel food proteins. While the empirical evidence accumulated over the last 20+ years has largely failed to confirm a correlation between digestive stability and the allergenic status of proteins, even those who accept this finding often assert that this shortfall is the result of faulty assay design rather than lack of causality. Here, we outline why digestive stability may not in fact correlate with allergenic potential.