For people with food allergies, even a simple dinner out can become stressful. Figuring out whether every ingredient is listed on the menu and asking the server a dozen questions are necessary steps just to avoid dishes that might seem harmless to most, but can be dangerous — even fatal — to someone with allergies.
A bite of something containing peanuts, shellfish, soy, or wheat can lead to anything from mild itching to vomiting or even difficulty breathing. At the moment, managing food allergies mostly comes down to strict avoidance and carrying emergency medication like epinephrine auto-injectors (EpiPens) or antihistamines.
While treatments like oral immunotherapy are gaining traction, there’s still no cure. But that may be starting to change. A new study published in Nature highlights a type of immune cell that appears to ease food allergy symptoms — raising hopes among researchers at NYU Langone Health for a new way to treat not only allergies, but potentially other autoimmune conditions, too.
Understanding Food Allergies
First, it’s important to distinguish a food allergy from a food intolerance. Intolerances — like lactose intolerance — are usually digestive issues and generally less severe. Food allergies, on the other hand, involve the immune system mistakenly identifying certain food proteins as harmful, triggering a reaction each time the food is consumed.
Being allergic to a certain food means the immune system has incorrectly tagged a specific protein in that food as dangerous. As a result, it launches an immune response to "fight off" the supposed threat, causing symptoms that can range from mild to severe. These symptoms occur every time the protein is eaten, making even small amounts risky for those affected.
Our gut is constantly exposed to a wide variety of foods, and the gut microbiome helps the immune system learn what’s harmful and what’s not. A healthy balance of gut bacteria plays a key role in helping prevent allergic reactions. So, researchers have increasingly turned their attention to the immune system within the gut to better understand how allergies take root at the molecular level.
Read More: New Therapy Offers Promising Solution to Childhood Peanut Allergies
New Immune Cell Shows Promise
Building on earlier studies, scientists examined a newly identified type of immune cell called a tolerogenic dendritic cell, known for promoting immune tolerance to beneficial gut bacteria and improving overall microbiome health. This time, they explored whether these same cells could also play a role in reducing food allergies.
Through genetically modifying the tolerogenic dendritic cells in mice, researchers observed that the animals developed asthma and food allergy symptoms. Additionally, when the cells were present and exposed to proteins from either food or friendly gut microbes, they triggered a transformation in nearby T cells. These T cells took on a regulatory, anti-inflammatory role — essentially training the immune system to stay calm the next time it encountered the same substance.
“This discovery adds evidence to our earlier work showing that these cells also keep the peace with the vast microbiome, the mix of microbes that inhabits our body, and may be important for preventing autoimmune conditions like Crohn’s disease,” said Dan Littman, co-author of the study in a press release.
Potential for Broader Treatments
The team also identified similar cells in various human tissue samples, suggesting that this mechanism might apply beyond mice. More research is needed to determine the exact role these cells play in the human body, but the implications are exciting.
“If further experiments prove successful, our findings could lead to innovative ways to treat food allergies,” said Littman in the release. “For example, if someone has a peanut allergy, perhaps we can use tolerogenic dendritic cells to help create more regulatory T cells to suppress an allergic response to peanut molecules.”
Beyond food allergies, this breakthrough could pave the way for treating other autoimmune and allergic conditions — and even help improve tolerance in organ transplant recipients.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
Read More: Everything to Know About Allergies
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology: The Current State of Oral Immunotherapy
Nature: Prdm16-dependent antigen-presenting cells induce tolerance to gut antigens
Having worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts – ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition – into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When she’s not immersed in a popular science book, you’ll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.
