Food allergies have been on the rise over the last few decades. According to Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) food allergies have increased 50% from 2007 to 2011. Unfortunately, 1 in every 10 adults and 1 in every 13 children will develop a food allergy. As a result, over 33 million Americans are diagnosed with food allergies. Additionally, the physiological response to food allergies has become severe causing individuals to go into anaphylactic shock.
Food allergies occur when the immune system overreacts to a nutrient, which releases chemicals that elicit an allergic reaction. The body intakes the allergen, or thing that triggers an allergy, and in response the body generates an antibody called IgE. The IgE antibody multiplies and moves through the blood to generate a response. The most common food allergens include nuts, shellfish, and wheat; however, more foods are becoming life-threatening, and scientists are unsure why.
The food allergy epidemic has caused a lot of concern with more funds designated for patient care and research. Currently, scientists believe the rise of food allergies is caused by a combination of effects including hygiene, vitamin D deficiency, environmental factors, genetics, location and processed food diets. Unfortunately, it is becoming harder to prevent and treat food allergies. As a result, researchers are working to develop therapies to actively prevent food allergies from occurring.
A recent study in Nature, by Dr. Talal Chatila and others, demonstrated that a specific regulatory protein is responsible for the organization of microbes in the intestine, which causes the body to become intolerant of specific foods. Chatila is the Denise and David Bunning Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Division of Immunology at Boston Children’ s Hospital. His work focuses on the immune response against viral infections and allergies. He specifically investigates different biomarkers associated with improved therapeutic success and how to better target disease.
Chatila and colleagues identified a protein known as RELMb, which reshapes the microbe profile in the gut to become intolerable to certain foods. The team also discovered that RELMb is increased in children with food allergies. Researchers are now looking to target and inhibit RELMb with the goal of preventing and possibly curing food allergies. The team used various scientific techniques and mouse models that discovered RELMb depletes bacterial species. These specific species secrete compounds known as indoles that generate protective immunity and prevent allergic reactions from occurring. Chatila and others found that blocking RELMb in mice restored their food tolerance and avoided anaphylaxis when eating foods that they were initially prone to be allergic to.
Researchers hope to give a RELMb blocker as a prophylactic drug and restore immunity before food allergies can occur. Although more work needs to be done to understand the long-term effects of blocking this protein, this discovery has the potential to improve and cure food allergies. Chatila and his group hope to move through to clinical trials with an RELMb inhibitor for patients with severe food allergies.
Study, Nature, Talal Chatila, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’ s Hospital
