Point-of-care personalized rapid diagnosis of allergies using peptide epitopes and SPR multiplexed detection

Allergy is the most common chronic disease in Europe. Up to 20 % of patients with allergies live with a severe debilitating form of their condition, struggling with the fear of a possible asthma attack, anaphylactic shock, or even death from an allergic reaction. Allergic reactions vary among different patients, due to the presence of different antibodies, which may also define the severity of the allergic reaction. Diagnostic tools are still suboptimal, as they require an oral food challenge for diagnostic, which is personnel, time, and cost consuming and bear the risk of severe allergic reactions for the patient. Also, there is a major gap in food allergy diagnosis to easily distinguish between sensitization and allergy. Therefore, a fast point-of-care multiplexed analytical platform for allergy assessment, supporting low-risk minimally invasive personalized diagnostics and treatment monitoring is advanced. The novel portable Surface Plasmon Resonance system integrates microfluidics and a low-fouling, multiple-ligand biosensor based on recently identified peptide epitopes for appraising allergenspecific serum antibodies. Aiming at personalized diagnosis of allergy, we successfully tested and validated the platform on hazelnuts and peanuts, two of the most threatening and frequent food allergens. Moreover, in contrast to the conventional SPR analysis and ELISA, by using an innovative analysis of the entire sensing area where the peptides are immobilized, it was even possible to discern different sera related to the same allergen.