In a recent study published in Nature Materials , a team of researchers developed a novel oral immunotherapy platform that uses formulated inulin gel combined with food allergens to orally deliver dietary antigens to intestinal dendritic cells and modulate the microbiome-metabolites-immune axis in situ to establish an allergen-specific, sustained oral tolerance. Study: Inulin-gel-based oral immunotherapy remodels the small intestinal microbiome and suppresses food allergy . Image Credit: Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock.
com A growing health concern, especially in industrialized countries, is food allergies, with accidental exposure to food allergens leading to hypovolemic shock that can often become life-threatening. The strategies and interventions to deal with food allergies have thus far consisted of strict avoidance of foods containing allergens, experimental therapy, and emergency treatment for anaphylaxis. The first oral immunotherapy drug approved by the United States (U.
S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was Palforzia to lower the severity and incidence of peanut allergies. However, reports indicated close to 20% discontinuation of the treatment due to gastrointestinal adverse events.
The problems associated with dose intermittence and inadequate dose maintenance also contributed to a failure to develop long-term and persistent unresponsiveness to the allergen. Many studies also report that food allergies might be linked to gut microbiome dysbiosis and the metabolites secr.