Perusal of food allergens analysis by mass spectrometry-based proteomics

Food allergy is the disease where the immune system is elicited by antigens in food. Although innocuous for immune-tolerant individuals, an ever-growing number of food allergenic people are being registered worldwide. To date, no treatment to cure food allergy is available and the disease management relies on the careful exclusion of the allergenic food from the diet of the allergic individuals. Great efforts are ongoing to clarify the allergenic mechanisms of the diverse allergenic proteins of food origin, aimed to both designing suitable therapies and for a timely and precise diagnosis of the allergic condition. Among the other omics sciences, mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics is gaining a steadily increasing interest by the whole scientific community acknowledged its high versatility. In the present work, the latest proteomics based-studies on allergenic proteins are reviewed to provide guidance on the different MS-based methodologies adopted in the research on food allergens. Our review points to highlight the strengths of the MS-based proteomics and how these have been exploited to address specific research questions. Also, the most common drawbacks encountered in a proteomic study are discussed, providing an overview that helps novel researchers in choosing the more suitable experimental workflow. SIGNIFICANCE: Wide wealth of knowledge arising from the various MS-based proteomic investigations is improving our understanding of food allergy through molecular characterization of food allergens. The present work reviews the key aspects to be evaluated while investigating food allergens by means of MS-based proteomics and provide guidance to the novel research groups approaching to the fascinating world of MS-based food allergens detection.