Harnessing nanomedicine and immunometabolism to treat allergic disease

Allergic diseases affect an estimated 260 million people worldwide and develop due to dysregulated immune responses against harmless environmental antigens caused by a breakdown in immune tolerance mechanisms. Current standard-of-care treatments manage disease symptoms through nonspecific mechanisms impairing normal immune function, often leaving patients struggling with symptom management. Allergen-specific immunotherapies can modify the immune response by inducing tolerance, leading to long-term reduction or elimination of allergy symptoms. Recent advances in nanomedicine have opened new avenues of research to induce antigen-specific tolerance through the delivery of allergens alongside immunomodulators under controlled contexts. In this Special Report, we examine how nanomedicine and immunometabolism can be harnessed to develop next-generation therapies for allergic diseases. We first summarize current FDA-approved treatments and their limitations. We then discuss immunometabolic pathways that shape allergic inflammation and represent actionable therapeutic targets. Next, we review nanoparticle-based approaches designed to induce antigen-specific tolerance and highlight cutting-edge strategies that use metabolite-derived polymers for controlled immunomodulation. Finally, we offer a perspective on how integrating immunometabolism with nanomedicine may enable transformative therapies for allergic diseases and other inflammatory conditions. [PubMed and Google Scholar databases were searched for relevant articles published from May 2003 to January 2026].