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New treatment strategies for food allergies in development
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Food allergies affect roughly 4% of all children and are a serious and often life-threatening health issue, according to a recent report published in The Lancet.
“In most children, this disorder is mainly mediated by [immunoglobulin E], but some children have non-[immunoglobulin E]-mediated cell-mediated allergy presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms,” researchers wrote. “The two most common food allergens are milk and egg, and the third varies between countries: peanuts in the United States and Switzerland, wheat in Germany and Japan, tree nuts in Spain, and sesame in Israel.”
New immunotherapeutic strategies to treat allergies are being investigated and include diets containing extensively heated milk and eggs, sublingual immunotherapy, treatments with modified antigens and epicutaneous allergen immunotherapy. In a small population of children with peanut allergies, immunotherapy combined with anti-IgE monoclonal antibodies has caused desensitization.
Oral food challenge, although the most accurate and sensitive test, poses the greatest risk to the patient and should only be conducted in hospital settings. Skin-prick tests and in vitro allergen-specific IgE tests are widely used and, when negative, are good predictors of a negative food challenge.
“Studies with more consistent and appropriate diagnostic criteria are needed to better understand the incidence, prevalence, natural history, and temporal trends of food allergy and associated disorders,” researchers wrote. “The natural history of food allergy needs further delineation.”
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Disclosure: See the study for full list of disclosures.