Oil body-associated hazelnut allergens including oleosins are underrepresented in diagnostic extracts but associated with severe symptoms.

Background: Oil body-associated allergens such as oleosins have been reported for important allergenic foods such as peanut, sesame and hazelnut. Here we investigate whether oil body associated proteins (OAPs) are linked with specific clinical phenotypes and whether they are represented in skin prick test (SPT) reagents.

Methods: A hazelnut OAP fraction was characterized by mass-spectrometry (MS) to identify its major constituents.