Immune rebalancing by oral immunotherapy: A novel method for getting the immune system back on track

Immune modulating treatments are often associated with immune suppression or an opposing anti-inflammatory paradigm. As such, there is a risk of exposing patients to infections and malignancies. Contrarily, eliciting only mild immune modulation can be insufficient for alleviating immune-mediated damage. Oral immunotherapy is a novel approach that uses the inherent ability of the gut immune system to generate signals that specifically suppress inflammation at affected sites, without inducing generalized immune suppression. Oral immunotherapy is being developed as a method to rebalance systemic immunity and restore balance, getting it back on track, rather than pushing the immune response too much or too little in opposing directions. Here, I review recent preclinical and clinical data examining the technique and describe its primary advantages.