The mechanism of food allergy: What do we know today?

Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Volumn 4, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 197-199

  Beyer, Kirsten ^a,c   Teuber, Suzanne ^b  

^a CHARITÉ UNIVERSITÄTSMEDIZIN BERLIN   (Germany)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^c HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FOOD ALLERGEN; IMMUNOGLOBULIN E;

CROSS REACTION; EDITORIAL; FOOD ALLERGY; FOOD PROCESSING; GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT; HUMAN; IMMUNOLOGICAL TOLERANCE; IMMUNOREGULATION; NONHUMAN; PEANUT; PRIORITY JOURNAL;

ALLERGENS; DIGESTIVE SYSTEM; FOOD HYPERSENSITIVITY; HUMANS; IMMUNE TOLERANCE; IMMUNOGLOBULIN E;

EID: 2542442493     PISSN: 15284050     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1097/00130832-200406000-00010     Document Type: Editorial

References (19)

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9. Leung DY, Sampson HA, Yunginger JW, et al. Effect of anti-IgE therapy in patients with peanut allergy. N Engl J Med 2003; 348:986-993. This study describes the successful use of anti-IgE in peanut allergic patients. TNX-901, a humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody against IgE, significantly and substantially increased the threshold of sensitivity to peanut on oral food challenge from a level equal to approximately half a peanut to one equal to almost nine peanuts. This effect should translate into protection against most unintended ingestions of peanuts.
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17. Beyer K, Ellman-Grunther L, Jarvinen KM, et al. Measurement of peptide-specific IgE as an additional tool in identifying patients with clinical reactivity to peanuts. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2003; 112:202-207. This study describes that determination of epitope-specific IgE provides an additional tool to diagnose symptomatic peanut allergy, especially in children with peanut-specific IgE below diagnostic decision levels. Using SPOTs membrane, eight peptides representing the immunodominant sequential epitopes on Ara h 1, 2, and 3 were synthesized and labeled with sera from patients with symptomatic peanut allergy and patients who were sensitized but tolerant. Regardless of their peanut-specific IgE levels, the cumulative IgE binding to the peanut peptides was significantly higher in patients with peanut allergy than in tolerant patients.
18. Beyer K. Characterization of allergenic food proteins for improved diagnostic methods. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol 2003; 3:189-197. This review outlines recent advantages in characterization of food allergens as well as the relevance of this knowledge for use in recently developed protein microarray technology.
19. Roux KH, Teuber SS, Sathe SK. Tree nut allergens. Int Arch Allergy Immunol 2003; 131:234-244. This review describes recent studies conducted in an attempt to identify and characterize tree nut allergens that are responsible for allergy sensitization and clinical reactions. The allergenic tree nuts discussed in this review include those most commonly responsible for allergic reactions such as hazelnut, walnut, cashew, and almond as well as those less frequently associated with allergies including pecan, chestnut, Brazil nut, pine nut, macadamia nut, pistachio, coconut, Nangai nut, and acorn.