Detection of milk protein adducts using anti-peptide antibodies

The anti-peptide antibody technology was exploited in order to obtain immunochemical reagents for detecting protein adducts arising in milk owing to heat treatments or exposure to formaldehyde. Properly designed peptides, mimicking the novel structures of the protein adducts, were used as model antigens. The polyclonal antibodies raised against these peptides recognized effectively the targeted structures in the protein adducts and, moreover, they proved to be able to distinguish modified from native protein components in milk and cheese samples.