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，已经描述了奶牛以及其他物种（绵羊、山羊、水牛布法罗、骆驼）的广泛的遗传变体。牛奶蛋白变体是动物育种的重要辅助工具，已经被纳入育种策略。然而，它们对人类营养的重要性，特别是致敏潜力尚未得到充分利用。该项目第一阶段的结果表明，遗传多态性影响了几种酪蛋白变体的肽模式，从而发生了其过敏性表位的修饰。此外，它可以证明通过微阵列免疫测定和牛奶过敏患者的血清，牛奶蛋白变体在其过敏潜力不同。根据更新建议，胃肠道消化和变应原性分析应扩展至β-乳球蛋白变体A、B和C，这些变体已在项目第一阶段的不同品种筛选中鉴定。人们越来越关注使用其他物种的牛奶作为牛奶过敏患者的替代蛋白质来源。因此，除了来自奶牛的乳蛋白的表位之外，来自绵羊、山羊、布法罗和骆驼的酪蛋白和乳清蛋白变体的相应表位应该包括在微阵列免疫测定中，以确定这些物种之间的变应原性差异，并检查遗传多态性对这些表位的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.