Food allergy and omics

Abstract

Food allergy (FA) prevalence has been increasing over the last few decades and is now a global health concern. Current diagnostic methods for FA result in a high number of false-positive results, and the standard of care is either allergen avoidance or use of epinephrine on accidental exposure, although currently with no other approved treatments. The increasing prevalence of FA, lack of robust biomarkers, and inadequate treatments warrants further research into the mechanism underlying food allergies. Recent technological advances have made it possible to move beyond traditional biological techniques to more sophisticated high-throughput approaches. These technologies have created the burgeoning field of omics sciences, which permit a more systematic investigation of biological problems. Omics sciences, such as genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microbiomics, and exposomics, have enabled the construction of regulatory networks and biological pathway models. Parallel advances in bioinformatics and computational techniques have enabled the integration, analysis, and interpretation of these exponentially growing data sets and opens the possibility of personalized or precision medicine for FA.

Newly identified T cell subsets in mechanistic studies of food immunotherapy

“…Skin prick and specific IgE tests, which are currently used to diagnose food allergy, determine reaction severity and prognosis, and monitor immune response to immunotherapy, are limited in reliability, sensitivity, and specificity. In recent years, a number of high-throughput technologies, in parallel with statistical and computational techniques, have facilitated systems biology approaches and furthered our ability to discern complex immune pathways, including those of T cells during AIT (32). The goal is to ultimately establish precision medicine that tailors treatments to each individual and provide personalized care for treating food allergy ( Figure 1).…”

Food allergy: A review and update on epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention, and management

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] We also advise the interested reader to review a comprehensive report on food allergy from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS), 17 which describes numerous aspects of food allergy and provides recommendations to a wide variety of stakeholders for improving management of food allergy and also suggests a comprehensive research agenda. 18 Companion articles in this issue of the Journal focus on oral immunotherapy (OIT), sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), and epicutaneous immunotherapy (EPIT) and additional modalities of treatment under study, 19 mechanisms, 20 ''omics,'' 21 and prevention, 22 and therefore we will not review these topics in great detail. We highlight recent clinical observations and advances that inform diagnosis and management now and, hopefully, in the near future.…”

Gut Microbiome Modulation for Preventing and Treating Pediatric Food Allergies

“…Small-molecule metabolomics is the systematic identification, characterization, and quantification of all small metabolic products created by using specific cellular processes in a biological system. Metabolomics uses high-throughput techniques to characterize and quantify small molecules in several biofluids, such as feces, urine, plasma, serum, and saliva [45]. The metabolomic features of gut microbiota are still largely unexplored.…”