Current challenges facing the assessment of the allergenic capacity of food allergens in animal models.
Food allergy is a major health problem of increasing concern. The insufficiency of protein sources for human nutrition in a world with a growing population is also a significant problem. The introduction of new protein sources into the diet, such as newly developed innovative foods or foods produced using new technologies and production processes, insects, algae, duckweed, or agricultural products from third countries, creates the opportunity for development of new food allergies, and this in turn has driven the need to develop test methods capable of characterizing the allergenic potential of novel food proteins. There is no doubt that robust and reliable animal models for the identification and characterization of food allergens would be valuable tools for safety assessment. However, although various animal models have been proposed for this purpose, to date, none have been formally validated as predictive and none are currently suitable to test the allergenic potential of new foods. Here, the design of various animal models are reviewed, including among others considerations of species and strain, diet, route of administration, dose and formulation of the test protein, relevant controls and endpoints measured.
National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Søborg, Denmark.
Katrine Lindholm
KL
Bøgh
TNO, Zeist, The Netherlands.
Jolanda
J
van Bilsen
Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
Robert
R
Głogowski
Department of Bioactivity and Food Analysis, Institute for Food Science Research (CIAL) (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, Spain.
Iván
I
López-Expósito
INRA, Nantes, France.
Grégory
G
Bouchaud
Nestlé Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Carine
C
Blanchard
INRA, Nantes, France.
Marie
M
Bodinier
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Joost
J
Smit
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Raymond
R
Pieters
Food and Biobased Research, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Shanna
S
Bastiaan-Net
Food and Biobased Research, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Nicole
N
de Wit
Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Eva
E
Untersmayr
UMR-INRA-CEA, Service de Pharmacologie et d'Immunoanalyse, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Karine
K
Adel-Patient
Danone Nutricia Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands ; Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Leon
L
Knippels
Experimental Allergy Laboratory, DIAID, Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Michelle M
MM
Epstein
Institute of Pathology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Mario
M
Noti
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Unni Cecilie
UC
Nygaard
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Ian
I
Kimber
TNO, Zeist, The Netherlands.
Kitty
K
Verhoeckx
Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, University of Zürich, Obere Strasse 22, 7270 Davos Platz, Switzerland.
Liam
0000-0003-4705-3583
L
O'Mahony
Animal models; Food allergy; Hazard identification; Novel allergens