Allergenic Diversity among Plant and Animal Food Proteins
2012
Kumar, Sandeep | Verma, Alok Kumar | Das, Mukul | Dwivedi, Premendra D.
A large number of food allergens, usually proteins capable of inducing allergic symptoms, including severe, even life-threatening reactions in predisposed individuals, have been identified and characterized. As most of these proteins are from our daily dietary intake, they are often difficult to avoid. However, the proteins that cause such immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated reactions can be assigned to only a limited number of protein families. Detailed knowledge about the characteristics of food allergens, their structures, biological activity, and stability, may be helpful in improving diagnosis of food allergy, avoiding unnecessary exclusion of diets, and assessing the risk of cross-reactive allergies to other food sources. The purpose of this review is to shed light on the sources and molecular properties of the allergenic proteins, their stability, the mechanisms of the allergenic responses, and recent findings related to prevention of this serious issue.
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