PA³P: uma nova ferramenta para determinação in silico da alergenicidade e antigenicidade de proteínas

Abstract

A major drawback involving heterologous protein expression in organisms used for human consumption is the possibility of allergenic or antigenic reactions. Both Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization determined that a potentially allergenic protein world present at least 35 % identity in a 80 amino acid window or 6 – 8 contiguous and identical amino acids when compared with known allergens. In order to assess the allergenic or antigenic potential of a given protein, the Platform for Analysis of Allergenicity and Antigenicity of Proteins (PA³P – available at http://lpa.saogabriel.unipampa.edu.br:8080/pa3p/index.jsp or http://pluriserver.com.br/pa3p/) was developed. The platform was constructed using Java and HTML programming languages. It was p ssible to discriminate allergenic/antigenic from non-allergenic/non-antigenic proteins, with reduction of false positive and false negative samples. The additional analyses used in the platform are necessary, since the insufficient FAO and WHO proposed methods, rendering doubtable results. In our tests, PA³P presented 98% sensibility and 96% specificity when compared with the web tools used independently (89 and 85%, respectively). This tool has a potential to contribute to decision making regarding the of a given protein in GMO construction with nutritional intent.