Background and Objective : Due to more and more GMO foods appearing on table, their safety, especially the potential allergenicity are increasingly becoming the focus of people's attention. To in-depth evaluate the potential allergenicity of recombinant human lactoferrin (rhLF) in transgenic milk, basing on Exogenous Protein Allergenicity Assessment Tree issued by FAO/WHO, we used bioinformatic software and animal sensitization experiments to do further research on this GMO's potential allergenicity.Methods : According to the allergenicity Assessment Tree, the amino acid sequences of rhLF were compared those in SDAP and Allergenonline databases. Simultaneously, we did the simulated gastric digestion experiments and serological analysis to rhLF. On this basis, the DNAStar software was used to predict the Antigen Index and potential T cell epitopes of rhLF. In addition, the BN and Wistar rats were also used to do animal sensitization experiments to make a concrete in vivo evaluation of rhLF's potential allergenicity.Results : Although the similarity between rhLF and chicken Ovotransferrin Gal d 3 was more than 50%, it can be digested completely in 15s by simulated gastric fluid. And, rhLF shows no cross-reactivity with eggs or milk allergens in serological tests. Besides, the animal experiments show that rhLF has a very low potential allergenicity on BN and Wistar rats in many aspects like humoral immunity, cellular immunity and immunological systems.Conclusions : From the comprehensive results,we can get that rhLF has a very low potential allergenicity. In the allergenic assessment of novel or foreign proteins, bioinformatics software and animal sensitization test can be used as comprehensive supplement of allergenic assessment decision tree method issued by FAO/WHO. This two methods not only can predict the allergenicity of exogenous protein, also can analyze the manifestation of sensitization reaction,which provide more scientific reference for the allergenic evaluation method system of genetically modified food.

Potential allergenicity assessment of recombinant human lactoferrin (rhLF)

248th National Meeting (2014)

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