Recombinant food allergens

Allergenic (glyco)proteins are the elicitors of food allergies and can caus e acute severe hypersensitivity reactions. Recombinant food allergens are a vailable in standardised quantity and constant quality. Therefore, they off er new perspectives to overcome current difficulties in the diagnosis, trea tment and investigation of food allergies. This review summarises the expre ssion strategies and characteristics of more than 40 recombinant food aller gens that have been produced until today. Their IgE-binding properties are compared to those of their natural counterparts, in addition their applicat ion as diagnostic tools, the generation of hypoallergenic recombinant isofo rms and mutants for therapeutic purposes, the determination of epitopes and cross-reactive structures are described. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.