The Food Allergy Specific ImmunoTherapy (FAST) project

Wednesday, 17 December 2008 21:40

A new Europe-wide project, The Food Allergy Specific ImmunoTherapy (FAST), aims to develop effective desensitisation treatments for allergy to fish and fruit (apple, pears, peach, cherry).

Previously, desensitisation treatments for food allergies used allergen extracts, but these have not been successful primarily because of the risk of anaphylaxis in very sensitive patients. The FAST project, which has funding for seven years, will look at the production of modified hypo-allergenic versions of allergic proteins for use as potential treatments. Using purified proteins will reportedly make it easier to control the dose required for desensitisation.

The first half of the project will include pre-clinical studies, followed by phase I and II clinical trials. The principle could be applied to all food allergies as long as the specific protein causing allergy is known; however, in many foods such as peanut, the presence of several allergenic proteins complicates the approach.

Assuming the phase II trials are successful, the research project leaders maintain these treatments could be on the market within 10 years.