By Michael Goldberg MD, PhD | Project Leader
Greetings from the Center for Allergy at the Shamir Medical Center. While there is still a chill in the air (and for those of you still buried by snow, no, we are not complaining about the mild winters we have here), we are starting to see signs of early spring. The change of seasons reminds me that it is about time for an update about the recent work at our center.
First, I'd like to mention two recent publications authored by our group. Both of these papers are about our oral immunotherapy (OIT) programs for treating food allergy. The first paper was published in the journal Allergy, and discusses a complication in OIT treatment, which we originally described several years ago. This complication, called OITIGER, involves severe abdominal pain occurring in a small subset of OIT patients, particularly among those in milk allergy treatment. We developed a slower, less intense OIT protocol and found improvements in OITIGER, with a reduction in the rate of severe OITIGER incidents. Notably, the new protocol also yielded lower blood eosinophil counts in patients, which is important since OITIGER seems to be driven by the activity of these cells.
The second paper, published in the journal JACI: In Practice, addresses the growth deficits frequently observed in children with food allergy. These deficits arise in part due to the limited nutritional resources available to allergic children. We reasoned that perhaps OIT could lead to some alleviation in these growth deficits. In our retrospective study, we found that children completing OIT improved their age-normalized scores for both weight and height. These improvements were observed especially for patients starting OIT at a younger age, and for those treated for milk allergy.
Together these studies illustrate our ongoing efforts at providing safe and effective treatments for food allergy, resulting in improved quality of life for patients and their caregivers. Please feel free to look at the paper abstracts at the links provided below.
Finally, in the scientific research arena, we are excited to embark on a study of the dynamics in allergen-recognizing B cells from patients before and after OIT. B cells produce antibodies including IgE which is the antibody type responsible for allergic reactions. Allergic patients completing OIT generally start producing other types of allergen-recognizing antibodies, such as IgG4, that don't cause allergic reactions. The aim of this project will be to better understand how this switch occurs, perhaps down the road leading to improved OIT methods and protocols. We are delighted to welcome S, an incoming graduate student who will be working on this project, and wish her the best of success!
As you can see, we have been keeping quite busy at the Center for Allergy. Both in the clinical and basic science arenas, we aim to further the understanding of food allergy and improve its treatment. Your support allows us to continue our work, and as always we thank you, and look forward to sharing our progress with you going forward.
Links:
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