There are immunotherapy techniques that can end food allergies. They consist of gradually administering the food to which one is allergic until a maximum dose is reached which the allergic person can tolerate. What this achieves is what we call tolerance or desensitization of the person to that particular allergen.
These treatments are not without problems. It can happen that patients who are highly sensitive to these allergens, or one could say that they have a very severe allergy, even go into anaphylactic shock. Anaphylactic shock is a very severe allergic reaction that affects the entire body, occurs minutes after exposure to the allergen, and can be fatal in extreme cases. In order to avoid this type of reaction, these immunotherapy treatments in hospitals are always carried out under the supervision of an allergist, so you may be concerned if a reaction of this type occurs, which as I told you before, a few minutes after taking the Allergen occurs given adrenaline. For this reason, the administration of immunotherapy is also done gradually and in very small doses.
This treatment allows the immune system to modulate and increase the number of regulatory T cells that reduce intolerance to this food. Food allergies are mediated by one type of lymphocyte called T-helper-2, but there are other lymphocytes called regulators responsible for 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 substances such as microorganisms, tumor cells or any type of antigen, which are substances that can be from the immune system recognized.
By introducing foods to which one is allergic and which contain the specific antigen that triggers this allergy, it is gradually and in very small doses that more regulatory T-cells are created in the body so that it can tolerate this specific Eat.
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All humans have T cells in our immune system, but they are deregulated in people with allergies. Hence their sensitization to the allergenic food. These people have fewer regulatory T cells against that food. However, you should know that not only the immune system is involved. There are also other mechanisms that are important in food allergies, such as the gastrointestinal microbiota, microorganisms that reside in the gut and control the balance between tolerance and sensitization.
The process of immunotherapy to treat food allergies is very lengthy. It takes several years of treatment to reach the food dose tolerated by the allergy sufferer because, as I have explained to you, starting with minimal doses of the allergen that are gradually but very slowly increased. But if immunotherapy is done well, the allergy can be reversed.
I didn’t tell you at the beginning, and it is very important, that the first recommendation for a person who is allergic to a food is to avoid that food and its derivatives. But from there, anyone suffering from allergies can receive immunotherapy aimed at desensitizing their body to that allergen.
Monica Carrera She is a senior scientist at the CSIC Marine Research Institute. Her research interests are food allergy to fish and the development of food allergy vaccines using proteomics techniques.
Question emailed by Mariolis Guerra del Valle
Coordination and writing: Victoria Bull
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