Current and Emerging Therapies for IgE-Mediated Food Allergy

Food allergies are a growing clinical problem leading to increased health care utilization and decreases in patient quality of life. Current treatment recommendations include strict dietary avoidance of the offending food as well as use of self-injectable epinephrine in case of accidental exposure with allergic reaction. Although many individuals will eventually outgrow their food allergies, a substantial number will not. Significant effort has been made to find novel treatments that protect patients from food-triggered reactions as well as to develop immune-modulating therapies that could lead to tolerance. In this review, three therapies that have shown the most promise for the treatment of food allergies are highlighted: oral immunotherapy, sublingual immunotherapy, and epicutaneous immunotherapy.