Food Allergy Test Breakthrough

Dr. Jim Sears: You can now test whether they’re going to be having a severe allergy to peanuts or just a mild allergy, right?

Dr. Otto Liao: Correct, now the next step which is not FDA approved yet for the U.S. but it's certainly been used in Europe already and the cutting edge therapy actually gets into the peanut molecule itself and starts to look at specific proteins.

For example, we took a peanut and we looked up the individual protein molecules within the peanut, we know that there some molecules; the Ara H1, the H2, and the H3. They are more correlated to severe allergic reactions. So these are the ones that if we find them in the test to be allergic to, we know there's chances of having a severe anaphylactic type of reactions or a lot higher.

Dr. Jim Sears: Because most people with peanut allergies, they carry around the Epi pen, and they may not ever need it, but now we know we can test to see who absolutely needs Epi pen because of the severe reaction.

Dr. Travis Stork: And the -- for those who are watching over, if you have a child with a food allergy or you’re worried about it, there are some proteins in that peanut that if your kids are allergic to it, they make some welts on their skin. They may have a little itching. There are other proteins in particular if your child is allergic to them based on this testing, they can be deadly.