Adjuvant Therapies in Food Immunotherapy

Abstract

Finding an effective curative treatment for food allergy is a research priority. Although oral immunotherapy (OIT) is effective at inducing desensitization, the temporary nature of this effect and high rates of adverse reactions have highlighted a need for novel strategies to improve tolerance induction and safety. One such strategy is the use of an adjuvant together with food immunotherapy to either suppress allergic reactions and/or modulate the underlying allergic immune response. In particular, the use of bacterial adjuvants seems to be a promising means of enhancing OIT-induced sustained unresponsiveness and warrants further investigation.

Keywords: Adjuvants; Bacterial adjuvants; Food allergy; Interferon gamma; Omalizumab; Probiotics.