As one of the most important organs in your body, the gut is responsible for the digestion, absorption and utilisation of nutrients. Those microbiomes are especially important when it comes to allergies. But what does gut health have to do with allergies?

Food and health expert, Associate Professor Alice Lee from UNSW School of Chemical Engineering, has devoted her career to researching this area.

Food allergies are hypersensitive reactions to a specific food antigen with most people developing them from a very young age. In Australia, almost every two in people live with a nut allergy and approximately three per cent of infants have a peanut allergy.

Lee says while genetics do play a role in the development of allergies, epigenetics, such as the environment factors, also dictate how the infant immune system develops. Read more: Salt, calcium and vitamin D — do you get enough, or too much?

There is still some hope for young kids living with an allergy. About 80 per cent of babies allergic to egg and milk grow out of it by the age of four.

This is a stark contrast to children with nut allergies where only 20 per cent grow out of it and the remaining 80 per cent of people carry it into adulthood.

For these people, absolute avoidance of their allergens is very important. Recently, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the World Health Organisation recommended setting the regulatory levels for each allergen to standardise the allergen regulation policy worldwide.

This work is crucial in supporting the development of international food safety standards and guidelines relevant to the management of food allergens. FARE reports that every three minutes, a food allergy prompts an emergency room visit. Food allergies may trigger harmless symptoms: itching, hives , swollen lips, face, or tongue, wheezing, or an upset stomach.

The most life threatening allergic reactions involve anaphylaxis , where a person may lose consciousness and exhibit dangerously low blood pressure. When anaphylaxis is left untreated, coma or even death can occur.

Speaking on the NPR Shots podcast , Dr. One such microbe, Clostridia , has been implicated in food allergies. The bacteria are also linked to inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions. Clostridia produces the metabolite butyrate , which helps keep the microbiome in balance by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.

It also helps protect the integrity of the walls lining the gut to keep food from leaking out and potentially causing an allergic reaction in the intestinal mucosa.

Attempts to restore Clostridia to the microbiome orally or via fecal implants have not worked out, so a team of researchers from the University of Chicago, in Illinois, decided to try to introduce butyrate itself into the gut.

The researchers report that ingested butyrate prevented food allergies in mice, and even stopped pre-existing allergies.

The researchers presented their research at an American Chemical Association ACS meeting on Sunday, August First study author and ACS presenter Dr. Shijie Cao told Medical News Today :. The researchers delivered polymer -wrapped butyrate directly to the mice.

Cao tells ACS. The researchers embedded the butyrate in polymerized butanoyloxyethyl methacrylamide, methacrylic acid, and hydroxypropyl methacrylamide. The chemicals self-assemble to form aggregates the researchers refer to as polymeric micelles.

The butyrate — along with its nasty flavor and smell — wound up hidden inside the micelles. When swallowed, stomach acid begins to break down the micelles, delivering the butyrate into the lower gut far below taste buds or olfactory sensors as the aggregate dissolves away.

Cao told MNT. The researchers developed two types of polymeric micelles. One, NtL-ButM, had a neutral electrical charge, and the other, Neg-ButM, had a negative charge. This resulted in their releasing their butyrate cores into different regions of the gastrointestinal tract.

Peanuts are among the most dangerous allergens for humans. So theoretically, it can be broadly applied to any food allergies through the modulation of gut health.

The researchers hope that one day a person with food allergies might find relief simply by tearing open a small packet of butyrate-containing polymerized micelles, mixing it with water or juice, and drinking.

The researchers also investigated the possible benefit of butyrate injections into specific body areas, rather than delivering them to the system as a whole. We showed it increased local regulatory T cells and suppressed the activation of myeloid cells in the local lymph nodes.

The researchers are also investigating whether their micelles can help relieve inflammatory bowel disease IBD. They report that, so far, the micelles reduce the severity of colitis in mice.

As a result, [reducing] the severity of acute anaphylactic shock associated with the food allergies. Shijie Cao.