FRIDAY, Sept. 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Alpha-tryptase is associated with increased prevalence of anaphylaxis or severe reaction to food, according to a study published online Aug. 6 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Abigail Lang, M.D., from the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and colleagues examined the association between α-tryptase and severity of food allergy among 119 people who underwent tryptase genotyping: 82 from a cohort at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and 37 children who reacted to a peanut oral food challenge (OFC) at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

The researchers found that the presence of α-tryptase was associated with a higher prevalence of food-triggered anaphylaxis than in those with only β-tryptase among those in the NIAID cohort. Only 17 percent of children in the OFC cohort with β-tryptase had a severe reaction compared with 65 percent of those with α-tryptase. Higher total Severity Grading Score for Acute Reactions (SGSAR) scores were seen for individuals with α-tryptase compared with those with no α-tryptase. Significant positive correlations were seen for α-tryptase isoform copy number and higher total SGSAR and OFC symptom scores (Bock/Practical Allergy).

“Our findings also open the door to developing an entirely new treatment strategy for food allergies that would target or block α-tryptase,” Lang said in a statement. “This is an exciting first step and more research is needed.”

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