2023-06-22 11:46:36
There are immunotherapy techniques that can end food allergies. They consist of the progressive administration of the food to which one is allergic until reaching a maximum dose that the allergic person can tolerate. What is achieved with this is what we call inducing tolerance or desensitizing that person to that particular allergen.
These treatments are not without problems. It may happen that patients who are highly sensitized to these allergens, or we could say that they have a very strong allergy, may even have anaphylactic shock. Anaphylactic shock is a very serious allergic reaction that affects the entire body, which occurs a few minutes after being exposed to the allergen and in extreme cases can cause death. To avoid this type of reaction, these immunotherapy treatments are applied in hospitals always under the supervision of an allergist so that if a reaction of this type occurs, which, as I told you, occurs a few minutes after ingesting the allergen , you may be given epinephrine. For this reason, the administration of immunotherapy treatment is also progressive and with very small doses.
What this treatment achieves is that the immune system modulates and increases the number of regulatory T cells, which are the ones that reduce intolerance to that food. Because food allergy is mediated by a type of lymphocytes, the T helper 2, but then we have other lymphocytes, the regulators, which are in charge of inducing tolerance. Lymphocytes are cells of the immune system, there are different types and their main function is to regulate the immune response to the presence in the body of foreign materials such as microorganisms, tumor cells or any type of antigen, which are those substances that can be recognized by the immune system.
What is achieved with the introduction of the food to which one has an allergy, and which contains the specific antigen that triggers that allergy, progressively and in very small doses, is to create more regulatory T cells in the body so that it can tolerate that concrete food.
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All people have T cells in our immune system, but people with allergies have them deregulated. Hence their sensitization to the allergenic food. These people have fewer regulatory T cells against that food. Although you should know that the immune system is not the only one involved. There are also other mechanisms that are important in food allergies, such as the gastrointestinal microbiota, microorganisms that are in the intestine and that control the balance between tolerance and sensitization.
The immunotherapy procedure to treat food allergies is very long. It takes several years of treatment to be able to reach that dose of food tolerated by the allergic person, since, as I explained to you, they start with minimal doses of the allergen that are increased progressively but very slowly. But if the immunotherapy is done well, the allergy can be reversed.
I have not told you at the beginning, and it is very important, that the first recommendation for a person allergic to a food is to avoid said food and its derivatives. But from there, any allergic person can receive immunotherapy treatment aimed at desensitizing their body against that allergen.
Mónica Carrera is a Senior Scientist at the CSIC’s Marine Research Institute, her lines of research are food allergy to fish and the development of vaccines for food allergies using proteomics techniques.
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