Food allergies are increasing in developing countries, causing anxiety in particular to parents. According to the research, 8% of children under the age of four have a food allergy. Bilgicer said there is a requirement for more accurate testing, better diagnostics and enhanced treatment options.
Existing food allergy testing techniques carry risks or fail to provide comprehensive information on the severity of the allergic response. For example, a test well-known as the oral food challenge requires exposing a patient to increasing quantities of a suspected allergen. Patients must be kept under close observation in clinics with well-trained specialists. The test is stopped only when the patient displays a severe allergic response, such as anaphylactic shock. Doctors then treat the reaction with antihistamines, epinephrine injections and steroids.
Another common diagnostic tool, the skin prick test, can show whether a patient is allergic to a particular food. However, it does not provide details on the severity of those allergies.
During skin prick testing, doctors deposit a drop of liquid comprising of the allergen on the patient’s skin, usually on their back, and then scratch the skin to expose the patient. Skin irritations, such as itching, redness, and white bumps, are signs that the patient has an allergy.
Most of the time, parents of children with food allergies are not inclined to have their child go through such excruciating experiences of a food challenge. Rather than investigate the severity of the allergy, they respond to it with most extreme caution and complete avoidance of the allergen. Meanwhile, there are cases where the skin prick test might have yielded a positive result for a child, and yet the child can consume a handful of the allergen and demonstrate no signs of any allergic response.
Basar Bilgicer, Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a member of the Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics initiative, Notre Dame
While the research concentrated on peanut allergens, Bilgicer said he and his team are involved in testing the system on other allergens and allergic conditions.
The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health, along with private donations.