Allergens prevalence

The most frequent elicitators of food allergy in children are peanuts and tree nuts [ 17]. In France the prevalence of food allergy has been estimated to be 3.2% [18]. Furthermore, in this study, food was identified as the most common cause of anaphylaxis. Here the major identified food allergens besides peanuts and tree nuts were shellfish, wheat and lupine flour [18]. 

Genetic factors cannot explain the recent rapid rise in asthma prevalence. Asthma appears to require both genetic predisposition and environmental exposure. Many patients with occupational asthma develop the disease late in life upon exposure to specific allergens in the workplace. Environmental influences in utero or in infancy may contribute to the development of asthma. Maternal smoking during pregnancy or exposure to secondhand smoke after birth increases the risk of childhood asthma.3 Adult-onset asthma is not uncommon and may be related to atopy, nasal polyps, aspirin sensitivity, occupational exposure, or a recurrence of childhood asthma. 

Allergic rhinitis A highly prevalent, allergen-induced, upper airway inflammatory disease characterized by chronic hyperreactive airway mucosa with periods of acute exacerbations. 

Bronchial asthma is defined as a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs it affects an estimated 9 to 12 million individuals in the U.S. Furthermore, its prevalence has been increasing in recent years. Asthma is characterized by reversible airway obstruction (in particular, bronchospasm), airway inflammation, and increased airway responsiveness to a variety of bronchoactive stimuli. Many factors may induce an asthmatic attack, including allergens respiratory infections hyperventilation cold air exercise various drugs and chemicals emotional upset and airborne pollutants (smog, cigarette smoke). 

OA is a prevalent disease in the workplace with significant impact on health and quality of life. Management of OA is based on a multidisciplinary approach including methods to identify allergens, use of appropriate exposure control methods, education of the workforce and surveillance (air levels and medical). 

The number of sfudies estimating the comparative prevalence of molluscan shellfish allergy is limited. The frequency of consumption of molluscan shellfish mighf be higher in some of the locales where such studies have been performed. Clearly, more comparative clinical data would be helpful. However, the molluscan shellfish certainly seem to be a comparatively common allergenic food in some locales and among some populations. 

Bircher, A. J., Van Melle, G., Haller, E., Curty, B., Frei, P. C. (1994). IgE to food allergens are highly prevalent in patients allergic to pollens, with and without symptoms of food allergy. Clin. Exp. Allergy, 24, 367-374. 

Incidence and prevalence of allergies are an increasing phenomenon worldwide. The most efficient therapy is the avoidance of the allergen. This, unfortunately, is not practicable in most cases. Antihistamines provide a very well-acting and well-accepted symptomatic treatment, which in its recent form is liberated from most side effects and which can be easily applied locally or sys-temically over a long period. At present new promising and interesting methods of symptomatic treatment are available, such as antileukotrienes or anti-IgE. 

Naturally, plant ingredients are not the only source of food and drinks. Actually, in advanced developed countries, food from animal source is dominating where milk and meat represent the most concrete examples of drink and food, respectively. Nevertheless, the prevalence of specific applications, such as protein components useful for human health, stimulates the development of plant consumption. As a counterpart, plants also contain threatening protein components (toxins and allergens) that require attention for an improved food security therefore, there is a need of detecting low-abundance proteins (the deep proteome) from plant tissues as schematically illustrated in Figure 1. It is within this context that this chapter purposely limits the discussion to plant proteomics. The description about the situation of low-abundance animal-derived food proteomics has been made by the same authors in various other documents (3-6). 

Arbes, S. Jr., Gergen, P., Elliott, L., and Zeldin, D. 2005. Prevalences of positive skin test responses to 10 common allergens in the US population Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. J Allergy Clinical Immunol 116(2) 377-383. 

Sander, I., Merget, R., Leonhardt, L., Chen, Z., Raulf-Heimsoth, M., Baur, X. 1999. Prevalence of allergen-specific IgE in baker s asthma. Allergy 54 (Suppl. 52) 50-51. 

Lombardero, M., Garcia-Selles, F.J., Polo, F. et al. 2004. Prevalence of sensitization to Artemisia allergens Art v 1, Art v 3 and Art v 60kDa. Cross-reactivity among Art v 3 and other relevant lipid-transfer protein allergens. Clin Exp Allergy 34 1415-1421. 

In general, sensitization to insects occurs in about 30% of individuals with high-risk exposure. Allergenic insects are not only found at home but frequently in various types of work places which favor the exposure to a number of insect species concurrently. Storage pests are also an important consideration in workers exposed at their workplace as demonstrated in recent studies from Spain and South Africa. Prevalence rates of up to 50% for insects such as cockroaches, mealworms, and mites were documented. While the sensitization to these insects most probably occurred via the inhalational route, cross-contamination of grain and subsequently the end-products can also be expected. 

Cases of allergenic hypersensitivity caused by food additives are rather rare (0.03%-0.23% of population) (Wuthrich 1993) and difficult to diagnose (Spergel and Fiedler 2005). The prevalence rate of food-additive-induced asthma exacerbations obtained by using double-blind, placebo-controlled trails is about 5% (23%-67% of asthmatics believe that food additives exacerbate their asthma) (Bush and Montalbano 2008). One of the reasons why it is difficult to diagnose the exact effect of food additives is the fact that ingredients which appear in food products in very... 

---