Immunotherapy in Food Allergy

Abstract

Food allergies are caused by immune responses to food proteins and represent a breakdown of oral tolerance. They can range from mild pruritis to life-threatening anaphylaxis. The only current consensus for treatment is food avoidance, which is fraught with compliance issues. For this reason, there has been recent interest in immunotherapy, which may induce desensitization and possibly even tolerance. Through these effects, immunotherapy may decrease the potential for adverse serious reactions with accidental ingestions while potentially leading to an overall health benefit. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of food allergy and give an overview of the various immunotherapeutic options and current supporting evidence, as well as look towards the future of potential novel therapeutic modalities.

KEYWORDS::

• food allergy
• food hypersensitivity
• immunotherapy
• oral immunotherapy
• sublingual immunotherapy

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Paul J Bryce received NIH/NIAID funding for the production of this work (Grant number: R21AI078525). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Paul J Bryce received NIH/NIAID funding for the production of this work (Grant number: R21AI078525). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.