In silico tools for exploring potential human allergy to proteins

Bioinformatics can help scientists to develop hypotheses about proteins that may need to be tested further for risks of causing allergy. In silico methodologies and tools like databases and comparison software, play an important role in the assessment of protein allergenicity and allergenicity mechanisms. They can identify whether a novel protein is an existing allergen and/or has the potential to cross-react with an existing allergen. They cannot identify whether a novel protein will ‘become’ an allergen. AllergenOnline is the tool currently used for the safety assessment of novel proteins, but other tools are also available including the Structural Database of Allergenic Proteins (SDAP) and AllerTOP. Information concerning PeptideRanker, as well as the Hydrophobic Cluster Analysis (HCA) method used for identifying IgE-binding epitopes in food allergens is discussed.