Sublingual immunotherapy for food allergy

Tuesday, 04 January 2011 09:50

A research team at Duke University Medical Center is currently working on two distinct therapies to treat food allergies. Protocols are being developed for both oral immunotherapy, which relies on ingestion of increasing amounts of the allergenic food, and sublingual immunotherapy, which involves placing small quantities of a food allergen under a subject’s tongue.

While media focus has been on success in the area of oral immunotherapy, early placebo-controlled clinical trial work on sublingual immunotherapy for peanut allergens by the team at Duke University Medical Center has shown it has promise in protecting food allergic individuals from reactions following accidental exposure to low levels of allergens.

Further studies are needed before either of these approaches are ready for clinical use.

Reference: Kulis et al. 2010. Immunologic Research. DOI: 10.1007/s12026-010-8183-9