Food Allergy: What We Know Now.
Food allergy is an adverse immune reaction that occurs reproducibly on exposure to a given food. Prevalence rates of food allergy continue to increase worldwide, sparking continual research efforts in finding a suitable and safe cure. Food avoidance, the current standard of care, can be difficult to achieve. This review aims to provide a broad overview of immunoglobulin E-mediated food allergy, highlighting its epidemiology, masqueraders, immunopathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic work-up and available preventative and treatment strategies. This review also discusses novel, investigative therapies that offer promising therapeutic options, yet require continued research efforts to determine safety effects. Inducing tolerance, whether by immunotherapy or by the administration of monoclonal antibodies, allows us to move toward a cure for food allergy, which could vastly change this field of allergic diseases in the coming decades.
Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi.
Lindsey E
LE
Moore
Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi. Electronic address: phstewart@umc.edu.
Patricia H
PH
Stewart
Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi.
Richard D
RD
deShazo
D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence
Diagnosis of food allergy; Food allergy; Food anaphylaxis; Pathophysiology of food allergy; Treatment options for food allergy