Soy Allergy Detection Breakthrough

07 Sep 2016 --- A team of researchers are working on ground-breaking methods to detect allergy-triggers in food by using soy. The LowAllergen Project involves several Fraunhofer institutes joining forces to improve life for allergy sufferers who struggle with bad reactions to foods like nuts, fish, milk, cereals, gluten, eggs, celery, crustaceans, mustard, sesame seeds and soy proteins.

The four institutes, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI, for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV, for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME and for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM, are working together on the development of innovative food allergy analyses. 

“To date there are no food products, except for baby food, that are hypoallergenic and contain few allergens. The production of such products is very complex. One reason for this is that although the allergenic components of food ingredients can generally be detected, to date, it is not possible to determine their specific allergenicity,” says Dr Michael Szardenings, group manager at IZI. 

Using soy as an example, the researcher and his team have now succeeded in doing exactly this. 

“The human body can develop antibodies against all kinds of foreign substances. According to our findings, in the case of soy, this occurs in more places in the allergenic proteins than expected.” 

The scientific team have established a method that can be used to identify the allergenic components of proteins recognized by the patient’s antibodies which are called epitopes, directly in the antibodies in the blood serum. 

“Antibodies activated in a person with an allergy are directed against specific molecular sections of the allergens. Patients react to these molecular sections, known as epitopes. We were able to identify 374 allergy-relevant epitopes.”

Researchers analyzed 50 blood sera of patients suffering from a soy allergy. During the process, they used a peptide phage display refined at the institute. This is a method which is used for studying proteins and for clarifying antibody interactions. 

Meanwhile, colleagues at Fraunhofer IVV in Freising demonstrated that soy proteins can be modified so that they are less allergenic. Soy protein isolates were produced and modified using different methods including treatment with plasma, pulsed UV light, gamma radiation and high pressure as well as chemical, enzymatic and fermentative processes. 

The combination of enzymatic hydrolysis and a microbial fermentation were particularly effective methods used by the scientists to extract soy protein. 

“Enzymatic hydrolysis aims to reduce the epitopes, the allergenic components of the proteins. Special epitopes, known as conformational epitopes, can also be eliminated through the folding and unfolding of the protein structure or the amino acid sequence of the proteins is destroyed,” explains Dr. Peter Eisner, a scientist at Fraunhofer IVV and project coordinator. 

The soy proteins produced this way also showed a better taste. 

“We have already filed a patent application for the production of hypoallergenic protein preparations,” adds Eisner.

The research results could be applied to establish methods in connection with other food allergies and to continue improving patient diagnostics, Fraunhofer researchers are also planning to examine the sera of allergy sufferers on a large scale in a collaboration with Leipzig University Hospital with the aim of creating a biobank with more than 500 sera of those affected. 

“We are working on a test that will enable a broad range of food allergies to be detected with just one drop of the patient’s blood,” according to Szardenings.

For example, if a patient is allergic to birch pollen, his or her antibodies often react to soy proteins. This means the prick test finding would be positive although the person is not actually allergic to soy. 

“With our test, one can precisely determine whether there is a risk of a soy allergy. It could even be evaluated immediately at the medical practice.”

Another idea from the researchers is to combine the evaluation with an app in the future.
“A person takes a photo of the test with his smartphone. He receives the result shortly after via the app, which is connected with the evaluation software.” 

The FoodAllergen project was launched in the spring of 2016 and runs until March 2019. The Fraunhofer Future Foundation is sponsoring the project with €6.6 million (US$7.4 million).

By Gaynor Selby