{"id":1304,"date":"2023-12-07T11:38:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T16:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2023-12-07T11:38:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T16:38:59","slug":"cross-reactive-epitopes-food-allergy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1304","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Cross Reactive Epitopes &amp; Food Allergy<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A recent article in the <em>Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology<\/em> provided an update on our understanding of cross reactivity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First by way of definition an epitope is a discreet (usually small) portion of a molecule that is the binding target of an antibody.&nbsp; In the case of allergic problems, the antibody is IgE.&nbsp; By way of example think of distinguishing features that help you identify a car:&nbsp; the Mercedes Star and the Dodge Ram.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allergy is directed at this epitope, not at the very large complete molecule.&nbsp; As it turns out certain epitopes are found on both foods and airborne allergens.&nbsp; The most common examples are crustaceans and dust mites, tree nuts and birch pollen, wheat and grass pollen.&nbsp; The cross reactivity can be a two-way street where exposure to a food worsens an airborne allergy or vice versa.&nbsp; Also, allergy shots for the airborne allergen can actually reduce the food allergy by desensitization reactivity to the shared epitope.&nbsp; What will be very interesting to find out is whether desensitization to foods will help airborne allergy.&nbsp; Food desensitization is still in its infancy with peanut desensitization being the main inroad in this regard.&nbsp; But many academic centers have ongoing research to develop therapies for other common food allergens; milk, egg, wheat, soy and corn.&nbsp; Stay tuned.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology provided an update on our understanding of cross reactivity.&nbsp; First by way of definition an epitope is a discreet (usually small) portion of a molecule that is the binding target of an antibody.&nbsp; In the case of allergic problems, the antibody is IgE.&nbsp; By way of example think of distinguishing features that help you identify a car:&nbsp; the Mercedes Star and the Dodge Ram.&nbsp; Allergy is directed at this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1304\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[637,50],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-epitopes","tag-food-allergy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}