Food allergies affect approximately 220 million people worldwide, reports the World Health Organization. Only in the United States, one in 13 children lives with food allergies that appreciate life, according to the non -profit organization, the research and education of food allergies (TARE). An important milestone was reached in this field in 2024 when the United States food and medication administration approved the first biological to treat food allergies after accidental exhibitions, Xolair (omalizumab). While there is a handful of other food allergy treatments in the development pipe, YoThe nucuted combinations of monoclonal antibodies and immunomuneing drugs, innovation in this field remains limited.
Replacement of methods with date and harmful
A limitation that contains the development of new therapies for food allergies is that many commonly used research tools are already exceeded often little practical. The investigation has been accumulated by several factors, most of the heavy process to introduce all kinds potential to determine an answer. When experimental treatments reach clinical trials, the most used method to prove the efficacy in patients is the oral food challenge (OFC), which implies exposing patients to gradual food quantities to determine if they have reactions.
This method is of the conclusion, or worse, can cause anaphylaxis in some participants. The mere stress of risking potential reactions that leave an oral food challenge, along with the need to travel to a medical center for tests, would probably discourage many people to participate in a research essay. It is unlikely that parents also agree to intentionally expose their children to potential foods of all kinds. A study found that 23% of children undergoing an oral food challenge experienced multiple systemic reactions, and 15% of these cases require epinephrine.
Meanwhile, one of the most promising methods to advance in the in vitro tests of food allergy is the basophile activation test (BAT), which uses flow cytometry to measure basophilic activation, a type of white blood cells, in blood samples that are Ners. The challenge here is that bats of bats are complex workflows of several steps that replace the experience and that are based on fresh blood samples that can be difficult to collect, store and transport.
A recent study demonstrated how the new technology could solve the thesis for researchers who investigate new treatments for food allergies. A team led by the Icahn School of Medicine
Mount Sinai in New York demonstrated how battery workflows that combine reagents ready to use with artificial automation and intelligence can rationalize tests. This emerging technology could make it feasible for researchers around the world to conduct food allergy studies that could not lack the appropriate equipment or experience. In the future, the same technology could greatly simplify the diagnosis of food allergies in people.
Rationalized flow cytometry workflows
BAT allows researchers to capture many exclusive characteristics of individual patients with blood raffles, including specific anaphylactic pathways in cells that are activated in response to certain foods. To question the function of these cell paths, where, laboratories need experience in flow cytometry and a constant supply of fresh blood samples. The typical workflow for food allergy investigation implies at least 10 manual pipetening steps and one or two centrifugation steps. Logistically, this is not feasible for many laboratories.
For the recent study, investigators from 15 clinical sites in the US. To allow the measurement of responses to all types of medications used to treat allergic diseases, some of the tubes also contained increasing amounts of dry peanut extract or others that allowed the performance of negative and positive controls. Despite the different compositions, all tubes could be processed following the same exact approach, significantly simplifying experimental protocols.
The new process used for this study was created to facilitate, efficiency and precision. Because the reagents were dry and prempquered, the clinical collection sites could work with them at room temperature and then send them back to a centralized processing site with having to worry about preserving their freshness. The pipette process of more than 10 steps that would be requested normally was reduced to four steps, without the need for centifugation. Less manual steps are translated in less opportunities for mystical, while reducing the risk that variability in manual management may negatively affect the results.
The researchers compared the data that collected the Simplified Bat workflow with a study of double blind placebo food controlled with exposure to peanuts. They reported that the BAT data predicted with precision the results of the food challenge.
Future opportunities
The rationalization of bat tests could open new research paths in novel approaches to treat food allergies. In this study, the 241 patient samples were divided into two groups, one of which was used to train an automatic learning algorithm and the other to test it. A similar process could be used to improve the methods by which food allergies are characterized.
The majority of food allergies specialists agree that no unique biomarker is sufficient to completely elucidate how all guides touch dangerous reactions in people. On the other hand, there are probable that there are many different biomarkers at stake, and artificial intelligence could be used to divide ideas on biomarkers that could then be used to define new objectives for treatments. The beauty of the AI is that it simplifies the task of the task of biomarkers that have been identified and studied in a fixed variety of clinical trials and diving knowledge that could quickly lead to new treatment ideas.
A broader use or bat tests could also contribute to the replacement of OFC in clinical trials of new therapies. OFC tests can be a logistics discomfort, particularly when patients are children. Exposing children to food that are known to be problematic pose ethical groups, and it may be difficult to determine how a child feels after exposure and treatment anyway. A simplified bat process could sacrifice the ability to measure all this with simple blood analysis instead of.
There is also a sustainability advantage. Duration The study led by Mount Sinai, there was no need to store blood samples in refrigerators or use dry to send them to the central laboratory that processed them, thanks to the dry reagents, which were formulated to remain stable at room temperature. Without the need for cold storage, it is easy to imagine how food allergies research could be very expanded to include small remote clinical research centers, as well as sites that can have a limited cold storage capacity.
In the future, it may be possible to apply new bat techniques for clinical use, relieveing the process of identification and diagnosis of patients with food allergies.
As the flow cytometry technology continues to improve, so will our ability to discover new therapeutic ideas and objectives in food allergies, and bring innovations to the market that improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients worldwide
Jean-Marc Busnel, PHD, is the main and scientific researcher of personnel research at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. He is a member of the global research team and is co -author of more than 50 articles reviewed by pairs in the fields of bioanalytic chemistry, metabolomics, proteomics and blood -based flow cytometry tests. He currently leads a team dedicated to translational research, which recently the first stage of the Diagnostic Challenge of the Rate Innovation Award won the first stage of the Rate Innovation Award. Together, the team works to take further take the capacities of flow cytometry for patient stratification in various pathological areas, such as allergy, autoimmunity, infectious diseases and oncology. To this end, special attention is paid to the functional flow cytometry tests based on complete blood and the simplicity of workflows so that the true potential for flow cytometry can be carried out through a required democratization of technology.