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Background: Oral immunotherapy (OIT) is a promising therapeutic approach to treat food allergic patients. However, concerns with regards to safety and long-term efficacy of OIT remain. There is a need to identify biomarkers that predict, monitor and/or evaluate the effects of OIT. Here we present a method to select candidate biomarkers for efficacy and safety assessment of OIT using the computational approaches Bayesian networks (BN) and Topological Data Analysis (TDA). Results: Data were used from fructo-oligosaccharide diet-supported OIT experiments performed in 3 independent cow's milk allergy (CMA) and 2 independent peanut allergy (PNA) experiments in mice. Bioinformatical approaches were used to understand the data structure. The BN predicted the efficacy of OIT in the CMA with 86% and indicated a clear effect of scFOS/lcFOS on allergy parameters. For the PNA model, this BN (trained on CMA data) predicted an efficacy of OIT with 76% accuracy and shows similar effects of the allergen, treatment and diet as compared to the CMA model. The TDA identified clusters of biomarkers closely linked to biologically relevant clinical symptoms and also unrelated and redundant parameters within the network. Conclusions: Here we provide a promising application of computational approaches to a) compare mechanistic features of two different food allergies during OIT b) determine the biological relevance of candidate biomarkers c) generate new hypotheses to explain why CMA has a different disease pattern than PNA and d) select relevant biomarkers for future studies. © 2019 The Author(s).

Background: The introduction of whole new foods in a population may lead to sensitization and food allergy. This constitutes a potential public health problem and a challenge to risk assessors and managers as the existing understanding of the pathophysiological processes and the currently available biological tools for prediction of the risk for food allergy development and the severity of the reaction are not sufficient. There is a substantial body of in vivo and in vitro data describing molecular and cellular events potentially involved in food sensitization. However, these events have not been organized in a sequence of related events that is plausible to result in sensitization, and useful to challenge current hypotheses. The aim of this manuscript was to collect and structure the current mechanistic understanding of sensitization induction to food proteins by applying the concept of adverse outcome pathway (AOP). Main body: The proposed AOP for food sensitization is based on information on molecular and cellular mechanisms and pathways evidenced to be involved in sensitization by food and food proteins and uses the AOPs for chemical skin sensitization and respiratory sensitization induction as templates. Available mechanistic data on protein respiratory sensitization were included to fill out gaps in the understanding of how proteins may affect cells, cell-cell interactions and tissue homeostasis. Analysis revealed several key events (KE) and biomarkers that may have potential use in testing and assessment of proteins for their sensitizing potential. Conclusion: The application of the AOP concept to structure mechanistic in vivo and in vitro knowledge has made it possible to identify a number of methods, each addressing a specific KE, that provide information about the food allergenic potential of new proteins. When applied in the context of an integrated strategy these methods may reduce, if not replace, current animal testing approaches. The proposed AOP will be shared at the www.aopwiki.org platform to expand the mechanistic data, improve the confidence in each of the proposed KE and key event relations (KERs), and allow for the identification of new, or refinement of established KE and KERs. © 2017 The Author(s).

This study describes two phases of a multi-phase project aiming to validate a mouse model for cow's milk allergy to assess the potential allergenicity of hydrolysed cow's milk based infant formulas (claim support EC-directive 2006/141/E). The transferability and the discriminatory power of this model was evaluated in 4 research centers. Mice were sensitized by oral gavage with whey or extensively hydrolysed whey (eWH) using cholera toxin as an adjuvant. Whey-specific antibodies, mMCP-1 levels, anaphylactic shock symptoms, body temperature and the acute allergic skin response were determined upon whey challenge. In phases I and II, all 4 centers detected elevated levels of whey-specific IgE/IgG1 in whey sensitized animals. Elevated levels of mMCP-1, anaphylactic symptoms, body temperature drop and acute allergic skin response were scored upon whey challenge in 3 out of 4 research centers. In contrast, none of the evaluated parameters were elevated in eWH orally exposed groups. The cow's milk allergy mouse model is capable to distinguish the sensitizing capacity of complete or hydrolysed cow's milk protein. The model uses straightforward parameters relevant to food allergic responses and can be effectively transferred between different laboratories. We propose this mouse model as a new strategy for the screening of new hypoallergenic cow's milk formulas. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.