BIOTECHNOLOGY IN CONTROLLING FOOD ALLERGY

Abstract

Allergy to food is the hypersensitivity of the immune system when contacting to proteins or components in food. The incidence of food allergy continuously increases year by year particularly in industrial countries, and by now has become a serious problem worldwide since every protein-containing food can :cause allergic reactions. Food allergy can affect I - 2% of the adult population and up to 8% of children ,Population. The most common food allergy is the type I reaction which is mediated by Immunoglobulin I. Responses to food are varied from skin reactions to anaphalytic shocks which can lead to death. Food allergy is mainly treated by systematic medication or removal and/or avoidance of the causal food. Another promising solution for allergic patients is the development of hypoallergenic food. Hypoallergenic foods can be produced via (I) food processing or by selection or (2) development of hypoallergenic primary materials. Selection and breeding of low-allergenic variety is the conventional strategies to produce hypoallergenic food. Additionally, biotechnology offers a quicker and more efficient strategy to develop such food by gene silencing. Antisense and RNA interference-induced gene silencing are two common strategies to remove undesired proteins from plant-derived foods. Hypoallergenic rice, soybean, peanut, apple and tomato are good examples suporting the feasibility of biotechnology in reducing food allergy