Putative biomarkers for severity and threshold of allergic reactions to foods

Food-allergic patients can present with variable patterns of clinical reactivity, differences in symptom severity and threshold dose reactivity. The knowledge of these clinical traits is vital for the medical care to establish the individual's management plan including symptomatic or therapeutic treatments. The highest diagnostic standard is a double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC) with the culprit food. DBPCFC carry the risk of acute, potentially life-threatening reactions and thus, require specialized clinics of limited availability. In the light of established molecular serology and effector cell reactivity assays, we will discuss the recent discovery of putative ex-vivo biomarkers emerging from immune cell and patient profiling approaches.