Food allergy: Current perspectives

In Allergology International (AI) Vol. 65 Issue 4, we offer a set of review articles entitled “Food allergy: Current perspectives” as well as original articles and letters to the editor. This issue will provide you with a comprehensive review of the latest concepts in food allergy. Food allergy is currently a hot topic in the field of allergology. The number of publications dealing with food allergies reached 100 per year in 1971, based on a Pub Med search, then 500 per year in the beginning of 21st century, and more than 1200 per year in 2014. As Hugh Sampson comments in his review article,1 no one would have imagined such a phenomenon in the 1980s, just 30 years ago. He sketches the intriguing historical background of food allergies over the past several thousand years. He further describes the recent past and the present state of food allergies, as a living witness. Finally, as a leading researcher in his field, he gives us his thoughts on the future of food allergies. We invited George Du Toit, together with Gideon Lack, both leading researchers into the prevention of food allergy, to contribute to this issue. They have written a comprehensive review article entitled “Prevention of food allergy: Early dietary interventions”.2 They have published several important original articles in consecutive issues of the New England Journal of Medicine, in 2015 and 2016.3e5 Although in the past, the prevention of food allergy focused on allergen avoidance, recent findings from interventional studies have prompted a shift in mind-set from avoidance to early introduction of potentially allergenic foods. In addition to their own work, they review many hypotheses for the possible prevention of food allergy. Thirdly, Magnus Borres writes a comprehensive review of recent advances in component-resolved diagnosis in food allergy.6 Molecular allergology is a breakthrough science that enables the quantification of IgE antibodies against individual allergen protein components at the molecular level. Identifying whether the sensitization is primary (species-specific) or due to cross-reactivity to proteins with similar protein structures helps the clinician to judge the risk of allergic reaction. Finally, Aaron K. Kobernick together with Wesley Burks coauthor a review of active treatment for food allergy, including oral, sublingual, and epicutaneous immunotherapy for IgEmediated food allergy.7 They describe for the readers of Allergology International the current consensus regarding efficacy and safety of those active treatments for food allergies.