title: Suggestions for the assessment of the allergenic potential of genetically modified organisms.
abstract: The prevalence of allergic diseases has been increasing continuously and, accordingly, there is a great desire to evaluate the allergenic potential of components in our daily environment (e.g., food). Although there is almost no scientific evidence that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) exhibit increased allergenicity compared with the corresponding wild type significant concerns have been raised regarding this matter. In principle, it is possible that the allergenic potential of GMOs may be increased due to the introduction of potential foreign allergens, to potentially upregulated expression of allergenic components caused by the modification of the wild type organism or to different means of exposure. According to the current practice, the proteins to be introduced into a GMO are evaluated for their physiochemical properties, sequence homology with known allergens and occasionally regarding their allergenic activity. We discuss why these current rules and procedures cannot predict or exclude the allergenicity of a given GMO with certainty. As an alternative we suggest to improve the current evaluation by an experimental comparison of the wild-type organism with the whole GMO regarding their potential to elicit reactions in allergic individuals and to induce de novo sensitizations. We also recommend that the suggested assessment procedures be equally applied to GMOs as well as to natural cultivars in order to establish effective measures for allergy prevention.
authors.affiliation: Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work, and Culture, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spök
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gaugitsch
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laffer
authors.forename: Gabrielle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pauli
authors.forename: Hirohisa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.forename: Elopy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sibanda
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Hage
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valenta
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000097:blood; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified / Q000276:immunology*; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D007136:Immunoglobulins; D020033:Protein Isoforms