Natural Variation of Hazelnut Allergenicity: Is There Any Potential for Selecting Hypoallergenic Varieties?

Abstract

Hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) have an important role in human nutrition and health. However, they are a common cause of food allergy. Due to hazelnut varietal diversity, variety-dependent differences in the IgE-binding properties may be suspected, which could allow therapeutic strategies based on the use of hypoallergenic varieties to induce desensitization. In a proteogenomic approach, we aimed to evaluate the allergenic potential of a genetically diverse set of hazelnuts (n = 13 varieties). Minor differences were found at the level of genes encoding important allergens, namely Cor a 8, Cor a 9, and Cor a 14. Nevertheless, IgE-reactivity was similar for all varieties using sera from seven allergic individuals. The predominant IgE-reactive proteins were Cor a 9 (100%) and Cor a 1.04 (60%), with the former being the most frequently identified by a two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE)-based proteomic approach. Therefore, it seems that the conventional exclusion diet will hold its ground for the time being.

Tree Nuts and Peanuts as a Source of Beneficial Compounds and a Threat for Allergic Consumers: Overview on Methods for Their Detection in Complex Food Products

“…Hazelnut allergy presents a fairly high overall incidence, namely almost 7.2% of the test population [ 99 ] and it can be considered the most prevalent tree nut allergy in Europe [ 100 ]. In terms of geographical distribution of the prevalence of hazelnut allergy, USA shows the highest percentage with a prevalence of 14.9%, followed by Germany with 14.7%, Norway with 12.8%, Switzerland with a prevalence of 12.6%), and Sweden with 11.8% [ 99 , 101 ].…”

Synthesis and Matrix Properties of α-Cyano-5-phenyl-2,4-pentadienic Acid (CPPA) for Intact Proteins Analysis by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry

“…To this aim, an aqueous extract of hazelnut proteins was prepared as described in the experimental section and analysed by MALDI-TOF MS using each of the novel CPPA (A), CHCA (B) and CClCA (C) matrices (see Figure 6 ). By comparing the experimental m / z values with literature data [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ] and a dedicated database ( ), we were able to assign the main proteins occurring in a crude hazelnut extract. As can be ascertained from Figure 6 , the use of CPPA allowed a more informative spectrum, with the detection of seven proteins compared to three ones observed using CHCA as a matrix; the use of CClCA caused a poorly resolved peak around 12 kDa.…”

Reference‐free discovery of nuclear SNPs permits accurate, sensitive identification of Carya (hickory) species and hybrids

“…DNA‐based identification of allergenic species is a critical step in many food safety protocols (Puente‐Lelievre and Eischeid, 2018 ), with finer discriminatory power required in cases like hazelnuts where cultivars within species can vary significantly in their allergenicity (Ribeiro et al, 2020 ). Nearly all DNA‐based identification pipelines rely on the ability to identify shared regions of DNA that contain useful variation (Graybeal, 1994 ; Townsend, 2007 ), but while technological advancements and reduced costs associated with high‐throughput DNA sequencing have led to rapid increases in WGS data availability, the ultimate utility of any WGS data will typically scale to match the available genomic resources for the clade.…”