Departamento de Química Analítica, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Sensors (Basel). 2018 Apr 4;18(4):1087. doi: 10.3390/s18041087.
Food allergy is one of the major health threats for sensitized individuals all over the world and, over the years, the food industry has made significant efforts and investments to offer safe foods for allergic consumers. The analysis of the concentration of food allergen residues in processing equipment, in raw materials or in the final product, provides analytical information that can be used for risk assessment as well as to ensure that food-allergic consumers get accurate and useful information to make their food choices and purchasing decisions. The development of biosensors based on nanomaterials for applications in food analysis is a challenging area of growing interest in the last years. Research in this field requires the combined efforts of experts in very different areas including food chemistry, biotechnology or materials science. However, the outcome of such collaboration can be of significant impact on the food industry as well as for consumer’s safety. These nanobiosensing devices allow the rapid, selective, sensitive, cost-effective and, in some cases, in-field, online and real-time detection of a wide range of compounds, even in complex matrices. Moreover, they can also enable the design of novel allergen detection strategies. Herein we review the main advances in the use of nanoparticles for the development of biosensors and bioassays for allergen detection, in food samples, over the past few years. Research in this area is still in its infancy in comparison, for instance, to the application of nanobiosensors for clinical analysis. However, it will be of interest for the development of new technologies that reduce the gap between laboratory research and industrial applications.
食物过敏是全球致敏个体面临的主要健康威胁之一，多年来，食品行业为为过敏消费者提供安全食品做出了巨大努力和投资。分析加工设备、原材料或最终产品中食物过敏原残留的浓度，可以提供用于风险评估的分析信息，以确保食物过敏消费者获得准确和有用的信息，从而做出他们的食物选择和购买决策。基于纳米材料的生物传感器在食品分析中的应用是近年来一个备受关注的具有挑战性的领域。该领域的研究需要包括食品化学、生物技术或材料科学等不同领域的专家共同努力。然而，这种合作的成果可能对食品行业以及消费者的安全产生重大影响。这些纳米生物传感设备允许快速、选择性、灵敏、具有成本效益，并且在某些情况下，可以在现场、在线和实时检测广泛的化合物，甚至在复杂基质中。此外，它们还可以实现新型过敏原检测策略的设计。本文综述了近年来在利用纳米颗粒开发用于食物样品中过敏原检测的生物传感器和生物测定方面的主要进展。与纳米生物传感器在临床分析中的应用相比，该领域的研究仍处于起步阶段。然而，对于开发新技术以缩小实验室研究和工业应用之间的差距将具有重要意义。
