Immune cell profiles in patients with unknown mechanism of allergic reactions to food

Summary

Food allergy poses a significant public health problem. It can lead to adverse and serious reactions and considerable uncertainty and anxiety that causes the impaired quality of life for the patient and family, as well as high costs for society. Setting a precise diagnosis is important so that anxiety to get an allergic reaction is reduced and a proper diet can be maintained. About half of all patients reporting to the Norwegian registry for adverse reactions to food cannot be diagnosed with IgE antibodies in serum specific to a food allergen. The mechanisms behind these severe reactions are unknown. In a pilot project, we wish to identify the characteristic immune cell profiles for the two patient groups with allergic reactions with or without specific IgE in serum, also compared with healthy controls. The hypothesis is that possible mechanisms for these reactions can be identified by high-dimensional analyzes of immune cell profiles, and can lead to identification of cell phenotypes that could act as disease biomarkers in individuals with and without specific IgE antibodies in serum. This is performed at the Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in collaboration with the Lung Department at Ullevål University Hospital.