The role of gene-environment interactions in food allergy prevalence

Monday, 01 August 2011 11:31

A recent paper discusses the current state of knowledge regarding genetic and environmental risk factors for food allergy. The authors believe further knowledge of the role of epigenetic modifications in gene-environment interactions is likely to provide an insight into aetiological and biological disease mechanisms.

The significant interest in epigenetics and food allergy in recent times is borne from the fact that the incidence of food allergy is rising more rapidly than changes to the genome sequence would allow.

Reference: Tan et al 2011. Clinical and Experimental Allergy. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2222.2011.03823.x