Investigation about the appearance of epitopes in milk protein variants, their allergenicity and potential use in human nutrition.

在酪蛋白和乳清蛋白中，已经描述了牛以及其他物种(绵羊、山羊、水牛、骆驼)的广泛遗传变异。牛奶蛋白变体是动物育种的重要辅助手段，已被纳入育种战略。然而，它们对人类营养的重要性，特别是致敏潜力还没有得到充分的开发。该项目第一阶段的结果显示，遗传多态影响了几个酪蛋白变异体的产生多肽模式，因此它们的过敏表位发生了修改。此外，通过基因芯片免疫分析和奶牛牛奶过敏患者的血清，可以证明牛奶蛋白变异体的致敏潜力不同。随着更新提案的提出，胃肠道消化和过敏性的分析应扩展到β-乳球蛋白变异体A、B和C，这些变异体已在项目第一阶段对不同品种的筛选中确定。人们对使用其他品种的牛奶作为奶牛牛奶过敏患者的替代蛋白质来源的兴趣越来越大。因此，除了牛乳蛋白的表位外，绵羊、山羊、水牛和骆驼的酪蛋白和乳清蛋白变异体的相应表位也应包括在芯片免疫分析中，以确定这些物种之间过敏原性的差异，并检查基因多态对这些表位的IgE结合特性的影响。

Within the caseins and whey proteins, a wide range of genetic variants have been described for cow but also for other species (sheep, goat, water buffalo, camel). Milk protein variants are an important aid in animal breeding and are already included in breeding strategies. However, their importance regarding human nutrition and in particular the allergenic potential has not yet been adequately exploited. The results of the first phase of the project showed that the genetic polymorphism influence the arising peptide pattern of several casein variants and thus modifications in their allergenic epitopes occurred. Furthermore, it could be demonstrated by means of microarray immunoassay and sera from cows milk allergic patients that milk protein variants differ in their allergenic potential. With the renewal proposal, the analyses of gastrointestinal digestion and allergenicity should be extended to the beta-lactoglobulin variants A, B and C, which have been identified within the screening of the different breeds during the first phase of the project. There is an increasing interest in the use of milk from other species as an alternative protein source for patients with cows milk allergy. Thus, in addition to the epitopes of milk proteins from cow, the corresponding epitopes of casein and whey protein variants from sheep, goat, water buffalo and camel should be included in the microarray immunoassays to determine differences in the allergenicity between these species and to examine the influence of the genetic polymorphism on the IgE-binding properties of these epitopes.