Oral immunotherapy for food allergy.
OBJECTIVE
Food allergy is a difficult clinical problem for which no disease-modifying therapy currently exists.


RESULTS
The daily administration of graded allergen doses through oral immunotherapy (OIT) is one promising experimental approach to the development of a clinically available treatment. Although the concept of oral immunologic tolerance is not new, OIT as a treatment for food allergy is innovative. Over the last few years, several groups of investigators have begun to demonstrate safety and varying degrees of efficacy and immune modulation in uncontrolled pilot studies of OIT. Rigorously designed trials are currently underway and important unanswered questions remain.


CONCLUSIONS
OIT for food allergy holds promise for patients with food allergy but additional research is necessary before this approach is ready for clinical use.
Vickery
Brian P
BP
Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. brian.vickery@duke.edu
Burks
Wesley
W
D000284:Administration, Oral; D000485:Allergens / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003888:Desensitization, Immunologic; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans
D000485:Allergens