The prevention of potentially fatal food-induced anaphylaxis in the growing number of people with food intolerance currently requires strict avoidance of the allergen. However, a recent study by Zhou et al. provides hope of an alternative. In a mouse model of food allergy, exposure to the allergen normally leads to severe, if not fatal, hypersensitivity, but the authors were able to confer tolerance in these mice by orally sensitising them with a sugar-modified form of the allergen before feeding with the unmodified form. It was found that a receptor on lamina propria dendritic cells, SIGNR1, bound the sugar-modified allergen, which led to the production of the immunosuppressive cytokine interleukin-10 and, subsequently, to the generation of CD4+ type 1 regulatory T (Tr1)-like cells; these cells transferred tolerance when injected into naive mice. Future studies will determine whether the immune system’s response to food allergens can also be altered in this way in humans.

Zhou Y, Kawasaki H, Hsu S-C, Lee RT, Yao X, Plunkett B, Fu J, Yang K, Lee YC, Huang S-K (2010). Oral tolerance to food-induced systemic anaphylaxis mediated by the C-type lectin SIGNR1. Nat. Med. [Epub ahead of print] doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2201.
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2010