Sublingual immunotherapy as an option for effective food allergy treatment

Food allergy sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) has demonstrated efficacy in inducing desensitization with lower rates of systemic adverse effects than oral immunotherapy (OIT). Long-term SLIT has been shown to induce sustained unresponsiveness, and there is evidence that high-dose SLIT protocols can achieve tolerance that approximates that of OIT. However, the cost of allergenic extract may make long-term, high-dose SLIT prohibitive. Consequently, some allergists have used food allergy SLIT as a temporary bridge to OIT. Other allergists have developed SLIT protocols by using suspensions prepared from whole foods instead of commercially available extracts. Because long-term maintenance dosing regimens for food allergy SLIT have not been standardized, studies are needed to determine the minimum effective doses and duration of food allergy SLIT for various foods. Clarity on these questions may open the door to establishing food allergy SLIT as a viable treatment option.