Scientists at EPFL have developed a fast and accurate method for determining exactly which proteins cause allergies to milk. The novel approach can extend to other foods as well. Although food allergies are common, sufferers often don’t know exactly what in foods cause their allergic reactions. This knowledge could help develop customized therapies, like training the body’s immune system to respond to certain proteins found in foods. However, determining which protein in a food causes an allergic response to a patient requires time-consuming tests that often ignore rare or unexpected allergens. Publishing in Analytical Chemistry, EPFL scientists have developed a highly-sensitive method that can quickly and accurately identify the culprit proteins even at very low concentrations. The method has been successfully tested in the context of cow milk allergy. Food allergies are becoming widespread in the Western world today, affecting around 6-8% of children and about 3% of adults. These types of allergies occur when the body’s immune system mistakes a harmless food protein for a threat and attacks it as it would normally do with a bacterium or a virus. This causes symptoms like swelling, rashes, pain, and even life-threatening anaphylactic shocks. Cow milk allergy is common among children, preventing
The post Food allergies: a new, simple method to track down allergens has been published on Technology Org.
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