Can food allergy be overcome with small amounts of these allergens?

Researchers from the National Center for Jewish Health and Research are conducting trials to assess methods to prevent allergic reactions to food. They will feed more and more people who are allergic to peanuts and eggs to the amount of protein studied in those foods to see if they can create an immune system that helps participants adapt to the type of food. eat it or not.

"We hope these trials will lead to the development of therapies," said Dr. David Fleischer, MD, a pediatric allergy specialist and principal researcher in Jewish studies. The first active prevention for food allergies. If successful, it will bring great hope for allergy patients and their families, who are obsessed with the fear of everyday food.

Currently the only advice doctors can give to about 12 million Americans is to avoid these foods and bring self-administered Epinephrine with them in case of eating the wrong foods. There is no treatment available to prevent an allergic reaction to food than to avoid it.

It is often difficult to decide which foods contain peanuts or eggs, especially when eating at a restaurant or other people's cooking food. It is even more difficult to recognize the proteins in eggs and peanuts listed on food ingredient labels, especially in unprocessed products in the US. As a result, every year thousands of people are taken to the emergency room because of an acute allergic reaction. About 200 people die every year because of allergic reactions.

(Photo: mahalo.com)

Doctors specializing in allergic rhinitis and other allergies have used immunity therapy - it is also considered an anti-allergy injection - to reduce the patient's sensitivity to pollen and hair. cats and dogs, and dust bugs. However, the introduction of anti-allergic injections for victims of food allergies is not considered safe because injections can cause severe allergic reactions.

Previous research has shown that placing proteins in foods that cause allergies under the tongue or ingesting into the stomach are safer methods of controlling food therapy . So that's how Jewish researchers will try to anesthetize allergic patients in tests.

Participants in the study (ages 12-40 for peanut allergies and ages 6-18 for egg allergies) will start by consuming a small amount of protein in eggs or peanuts. Doctors and staff in Israel will closely observe them to see if they have any symptoms of an allergic reaction. Over the months, daily participants consume protein at home, 2 weeks to 1 time, or gradually increase the amount of protein they consume until they reach the 'maintenance dose'.

As soon as the maintenance dose is reached, participants will be tested with a large amount of both eggs and peanuts to see if therapeutic immunity can reduce the immune system's response. Participants will continue to test maintenance doses for 1 to 3 years to see if they can achieve long-term results. Six to eight weeks after stopping the therapeutic immunity method, the participants consumed an even larger amount of peanuts and eggs to see if they had tolerated the food.

Dr. Fleischer, the lead researcher of Jewish studies, said: 'In traditional therapies, most patients with allergic rhinitis are tolerable - that is can last for many years. We hope to achieve the same results for our food allergy patients. '

Other participants in the study are the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, the John Hopkins College of Medicine in Baltimore, Duke Medical University in Durham, NC, and the University of Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute at Little Rock, AR.